Will BTS be the first K-pop stars to bypass South Korea’s military service?
- Jin, the oldest member of the band, is 29, meaning he is soon due to start his mandatory military service – unless he gets an exemption
- There is government and public support for allowing the group to bypass enlisting, but not everyone in South Korea would welcome such a move
After all, the nuclear-armed and weapons-testing North Korea is not far away, and the two sides are technically still at war.
That helps explain why global superstars like rapper G-Dragon, a member of the group Big Bang, and Exo singer Chanyeol have both gone through the rite of passage of wearing military gear for at least 18 months.
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While there seems to be general support for the move from national legislators and the public, many people including some men aged 18 to 28 who cannot avoid conscription, have expressed their disapproval of the band – Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, RM, Jungkook and V – continuing to sing instead of march.
Unfortunately for BTS, such major accolades overseas do not mean they can avoid a sergeant major back home shouting at them to get up before the crack of dawn.
Currently, only award-winning globally recognised classical musicians and Olympic and Asian Games gold medallists are exempt from enlisting or allowed to do other kinds of public service. Some art competitions – irrelevant to BTS – also allow for exemptions.
Given that BTS’ creativity is worth around US$3.54 billion to the South Korean economy annually, it is not so surprising lawmakers are discussing ways to exempt the group from military duty, likely fuelled by the fact that oldest member Kim Seok-Jin – known as Jin – will be 30 in December.
That means he will have to put on his military fatigues for the first time by the end of 2023 if the current law does not change. In 2020, he seemed more than willing to, saying “military service was a necessary duty” and he would “respond whenever the country called”.
However, at a press conference this month, before the group performed in Las Vegas, Jin said he had “talked a lot with the label and decided to leave most matters in the hands of the label”.
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Lee Jin-hyung is chief communications officer for entertainment company HYBE, which manages BTS. Speaking at the same event, he said the “military service revision bill pending at the National Assembly would hopefully come to a conclusion as soon as possible”. He also hoped BTS “would continue its activities without a long period of break”.
According to a recent Gallup Korea poll, 59 per cent of those questioned said pop stars should be able to receive military exemptions; 33 per cent thought they should not (the rest did not express an opinion).
Representative Sung Il-Jong of the People Power Party said last week that he and his Democratic Party counterpart recently discussed the need to review military exemptions and hinted changes may come very soon.
He said while sports stars added value to the economy, with an Olympic gold indirectly bringing in around US$210.7 million, a number one song in the US would have an economic effect in South Korea to the tune of US$1.38 billion.
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There are many reasons, though, why military exemption, including for cash cow BTS, is still a controversial topic. For starters, some people are angry that powerful men like politicians and business leaders, and their close relations, manage to avoid military service, with various controversies in recent years.
Sports teams have been accused of using major competitions as routes to exemption, picking players about to enter the military to be on the national team instead of other worthy candidates.
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But the support by Yoon’s People Power Party of a revision to the military exemption law has left young people like Kwang Do-kyeom, who voted for Yoon, disappointed.
Serving military would feel deprived if more men became exempt, said the 20-year-old from the southern city of Yeosu. Due to join the army this year, he called a revision “ridiculous” and said soldiers were already annoyed at not getting the national minimum wage and having few benefits.
Bae Kyung-hoon, a 31-year-old shop clerk on Jeju Island, said the law was “specifically tailored for only BTS. And let’s not act like the national economy will freeze if BTS goes to the military”, he added.
He said exemptions for BTS did not have as much support as exemptions for Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min, who in the end served just three weeks of basic training, or gaming icon Faker; he has yet to serve in the military but may miss doing so as he is seen as a gold medal contender in September’s Asian Games.
As it is mainly men who have strong opinions about their counterparts who try to avoid military service (given that it is men having to enlist) and the boy band’s fans were mostly women, Lee thought there would potentially be more voices coming out against BTS.
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An automatic military exemption for the highest-achieving pop stars could pave the way forward, with some suggesting those who receive the South Korean Order of Cultural Merit, usually awarded by the government after decades of cultural influence, should be considered exempt upon receipt.
BTS, the singer Psy (of Gangnam Style fame, who actually served in the military twice) and Oscar winning actress Youn Yuh-jung (a woman) have all been awarded it.
Choi Kyu-sung, pop culture critic and CEO of the K-pop Database Institute, said the government has tended to focus more on traditional and classical music but many more people now see pop music as artistic.
“It’s just difficult at the moment because there hasn’t been a case of a K-pop star not having to serve in the military,” Choi added. “Maybe BTS can be the first ones.”
