Asia Pacific|K-Pop in Uniform: All 7 BTS Members Are Doing Military Service
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The last two members, Jimin and Jungkook, began their 18-month military duty in South Korea on Tuesday. Some fans say they should have been exempt.
By Jin Yu Young
Reporting from Seoul
Fans of the K-pop band BTS have known for years that a day would come when its seven members would all be doing mandatory service in the South Korean military.
That day arrived on Tuesday. For many BTS fans, who happen to call themselves Army, seeing their favorite musicians enter the armed forces was as painful as they expected it to be. Any potential reunion concert, once the members have all fulfilled their military duty, is at least a year and six months away.
For those of you starting timers: That’s about 547 days, 13,128 hours or 47 million seconds.
The BTS enlistments began last December, when Jin, the oldest member of the group, entered a military training center near the North Korean border shortly after his 30th birthday. The members J-Hope and Suga enlisted a few months later, followed by RM, the group’s leader, and V on Monday. (Suga is performing an alternative form of military service as a social service agent.) The last two members, Jimin and Jungkook, began their military service on Tuesday.
A typical enlistment in South Korea is 18 months. The band’s management said last year that BTS would reconvene “around 2025,” but before then, the group’s members could potentially perform informally for their fellow troops, as other K-pop stars have done during their enlistments.
The band’s collective conscription caps a yearslong discussion in South Korea about whether BTS members should have been exempt from mandatory service.
While able-bodied men over the age of 18 are required to serve in South Korea’s military, some exemptions are made, including for Olympic champions and some classical musicians who win international competitions. Pop stars, however, are not eligible, a fact that sparked debate over whether BTS had earned one because of its contributions to South Korea’s economy and cultural exports.
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