For dedicated fans of Korean pop
culture and its many performers, particularly the good-looking heartthrob
males, from actors to idols to boy bands, there is always that dark shadow
hanging over everyone’s adulation of the K-showbiz guys. That is the two-year mandatory
military service required for all able-bodied South Korean men (and something women
could volunteer for). It is a necessary burden that makes all males in South
Korea equal, and something nearly impossible to receive exemption for. A number
of K-Pop groups have had to part ways as its members get called to report for
duty. Even international Korean sensation BTS is not exempt.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the seven-man band of BTS, which has helped
keep the Korean Wave sweeping across the globe, could soon be losing their
oldest member Jin to compulsory military service. Jin will be 27 years old by
December, and the South Korean military compels enlistment at age 28. The rest
of the members of BTS are not that far away from there themselves, which is
why, upon notice that the South Korean Ministry of Defense will not give
exemptions to the group, their fans the “BTS Army” is now calling on their
country’s military not to split them up during their service.
The Ministry of Defense explains
that the BTS boy band do not meet the very narrow criteria that would have
availed them a precious exemption from military conscription. Thus far,
legislation has only accorded such privileges to Korean national athletes who
have won international competitions like the Olympics, or classical musicians
that have won awards from overseas. Rarer still are exemptions given due to a
potential conscript’s extreme poor health, or the dire financial needs of the
family that might lose vital income while the recruit is performing his
service.
Conscription has been an absolute
necessity since 1957 for South Korea, which is technically still at war with the
hermit state of North Korea. And while the BTS Army fandom themselves are not
looking forward to it, the members of the group are all determined that they
will serve their two years as is their duty as Koreans. This is why the fans
are now petitioning the Defense Ministry that BTS be enlisted at the same time
as a group, and that the members are kept together in the same assignment rather
than be spread to different military divisions as what has happened with other
K-Pop groups that already serve.
They even took their voices to
online petitioning platform Change.org, and their request has already garnered
some 20,000 signatures for the South Korean Defense Ministry.
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