Rumors That BTS Will Perform at Presidential Inauguration Baffle, Outrage South Korea

The transition committee aiding South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol was flung into unexpected controversy this week after a member claimed Yoon was mulling inviting BTS, South Korea’s most popular boy band, to perform at the inauguration May 10.

On Wednesday, the committee’s public relations office issued a statement clarifying it had made “no proposal or contact with BTS” and the group’s record label, Big Hit, denied having heard from Yoon’s team – but not before fans around the world expressed concern that the government would be “politicizing” BTS by having them present at an event to install a conservative leader.

Yoon won a bitterly contested election last month against the incumbent, left-wing Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, who himself had “politicized” BTS by making their future military service a campaign issue. Risking the ire of BTS’s fanbase, who call themselves the “army,” Lee said in January he did not agree with allowing the seven group members to be exempt from the country’s mandatory military service. As South Korea requires all men to complete mandatory military service by age 28, the service has caused significant career damage to members of the nation’s lucrative “K-pop” industry, who must disappear from the public eye for two years only to find their moment in the public eye has largely passed.

BTS members were granted a rare postponement of military service through age 30 in 2020.

The inauguration uproar began when the head of the committee organizing Yoon’s ceremony, Park Joo-sun, told the nation’s KBS Radio that the committee was “discussing the possibility” of inviting BTS to perform, according to the Korea Herald. The South Korean news agency Yonhap also reported that Yoon’s representatives had reportedly reached out to BTS’s management agency, Hybe, to discuss K-pop acts appearing at the inauguration.

“The President-elect wants to hold the ceremony in such a way that it could allow people to have dreams. We are preparing for the ceremony in that direction, as it is more important to focus on the core content than just looking flashy,” Park reportedly said in the same interview.

“According to South Korean media, last week Yoon’s team met executives of K-pop companies, including Hybe Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and SM Entertainment, to discuss revitalising the highly lucrative entertainment industry and related start-ups following the negative impacts of the [Chinese coronavirus] pandemic,” the South China Morning Post noted Monday. While reports indicated the visit was of a political nature regarding how the next federal government could aid Korean entertainment – which has become increasingly valuable both economically and for the country’s “soft power” internationally – the visits were reported alongside Park’s comments, stirring rumors that BTS would be present at Yoon’s inauguration.

The rumors that BTS may appear prompted a backlash, including an online petition at the official website of the Blue House, the presidential office in South Korea, urging Yoon not to invite BTS. Opponents of the move appeared to see their presence at the event as inherently supporting Yoon, rather than an honor bestowed to the country’s top artists, the way performances at American presidential inaugurations are typically interpreted.

Some left-wing fans also objected to BTS performing for a conservative president, and noted in particular his campaign promise to abolish the South Korean “Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.”

“BTS are pro-women’s rights and have done lots to uplift women all around the world. They also are seen as being sympathetic to LGBT rights by I-ARMY,” a fan identified as Annie told the Korea Herald, calling Yoon “everything BTS stands against.”

Yoon has appeared to hesitate in fulfilling the promise to abolish the ministry since being elected.

Similar complaints did not arise when BTS cooperated with the government under the Democratic Party, which lost the election in part due to a wave of accusations of sexual harassment and assault by some of its most prominent members. Once considered a presidential frontrunner, former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon committed suicide in 2020 after an anonymous former secretary accused him of sexual harassment – including sending unwanted “personal photos” and “physical” contact – throughout his time as mayor. Democratic Party mayor of Busan Oh Keo-don, South Korea’s second-largest city, also resigned that year after being accused of sexually assaulting women at work; he received a three-year prison sentence.

Democratic Party President Moon Jae-in appeared alongside BTS a year after Park’s suicide at the United Nations to promote the institution’s “sustainable development” agenda with no similar backlash from the “army.”

BTS has made a variety of political statements in the past. The group donated $1 million to the leftist American organization Black Lives Matter and have issued statements against racism, particularly against Asians – but have been careful to avoid condemning America or any individual or group for alleged racism. In 2020, after winning an award for “outstanding contributions to the promotion of U.S.-Korea relations,” the band members thanked the United States for its support during the active years of the Korean War, prompting the Chinese Communist Party to attempt to erase them.

The Chinese government has shut down large fan pages for BTS on Weibo, its government-controlled social media outlet, attacked BTS itself for insufficiently praising China’s role in the Korean War (in which it fought against South Korea), and attempted, unsuccessfully, to build a rival boy band.

The status of BTS’s presence at the inauguration remains unconfirmed at press time. The presidential transition committee confirmed only that it had yet to reach out to the band, not that it would not in the future.

“We have made no proposal or contact with BTS’ agency in relation to the inaugural ceremony,” a statement from the public relations office of the transition committee said, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Big Hit, BTS’s record label, said only that it had “found out about this through the news reports. [BTS] have not received any form of invitation that we know of yet.”

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