The members of superstar South Korean boy band BTS will begin their mandatory military services imminently, their record label confirmed on Monday, effectively postponing their careers for at least three years.
BTS is South Korea’s most globally successful music act in history, establishing a string of world records and firsts such as becoming the first Korean music artists to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 charts and the first to be nominated for a Grammy Award.
The band’s near-universal popularity resulted in an invite to the White House this summer, where group members declared they would united to “put an end to” anti-Asian racism with leftist President Joe Biden.
The BTS collaboration with Biden would prove to be their last uncontroversial public appearance, as the band members described being exhausted and emotionally wayward in a livestream shortly thereafter that concluded with them announcing a “hiatus” – and their record label desperately denying in multiple public releases that the band would pause its career.
In South Korea, all able-bodied men must complete two years of military service by age 28, as South Korea remains in a permanent, frozen state of war with North Korea. The news that BTS will join the South Korean military followed a tense weekend in which the communist North Korean regime fired hundreds of artillery shots and a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) into the sea neighboring both countries, a potential threat of an impending nuclear attack.
The office of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol is reportedly on 24-hour watch for a nuclear detonation, the South Korean outlet Yonhap reported on Monday.
BTS members had already benefitted from a legal exemption offers to extraordinary talents to extend that deadline to age 30. Jin, the oldest member of the group, will turn 30 in December.
“BTS member Jin will cancel his plan for military deferment by the end of October and will follow through with the enlistment process set by Military Manpower Administration,” HYBE, the talent agency representing BTS, said in a corporate filing published on Monday, according to South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo. “Other members will follow suit.”
Given the age differences between members of the group, BTS is not expected to return to its full seven-member lineup until at least 2025.
“For the time being, the band will focus on solo activities in accordance with each member’s military enlistment plan. … In the short run, we are expecting solo activities for some of the members until early 2023,” HYBE CEO Park Ji-won wrote in the filing, “and we will make sure fans can interact with BTS through some content that has been prepared in advance.”
The Military Manpower Administration (MMA), which oversees conscription and organizes recruits into suitable jobs within the military, clarified in the aftermath of the announcement of BTS’s service that it would begin accepting the band members based on the vacancies that open as older men complete their time in the armed forces.
“An MMA official later said on background the agency will send a notice of conscription to Jin after he actually retracts the postponement of it,” Yonhap reported on Monday, “Then, the MMA will fix when he will begin serving his military duty, taking into account the military’s manpower needs and the number of other draftees in waiting, added the official.”
Yonhap predicted, based on its sources in the MMA, that Jin could begin boot camp “as early as in December.” Jin’s 30th birthday is on December 4.
The nature of the band members’ military service will remain unclear until the MMA decides where to place them. The Yoon government suggested in August, however, that they may be able to use their musical talents while servicing the armed forces.
“They should come to the military, and I believe there will be a way for us to give them the opportunity to practice as well as allow them to leave the country and perform anytime if they have overseas concerts scheduled,” Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said at the time, according to the Korea Herald.
Lee suggested that Koreans seeing the band members – perceived to live lavish lives of wealth and comfort – engaging in the same obligations that all the men in their lives do would actually help their careers, even if they cannot traditionally promote during their time as servicemen.
“Many people do think highly of military service itself, and I think (BTS members enlisting) can actually help them with their popularity,” he said.
South Korea’s mandatory military service has severely damaged the careers of many popular music acts since Korean pop, or K-pop, became a global phenomenon about a decade ago. The most popular boy band prior to BTS, Big Bang, endured multiple scandals as a result of the band members’ time in the armed forces, including one member reportedly overdosing on unspecified drugs and another simply receiving nationwide scorn for not getting promoted to a high enough rank.
A third band member became a convicted sex offender while the others were in the military.
File/Communist North Korean regime fired hundreds of artillery shots and a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) into the sea neighboring both countries, a potential threat of an impending nuclear attack. (Getty)
BTS performed what is expected to be its last concern in years in Busan, South Korea, on Saturday, and hinted at an extended absence from the stage.
“Whatever happens to us, if seven of us are on the same page and if you trust us, we will happily continue our music career,” band member RM told the audience at the concert, a free event meant to promote South Korea as a host for the 2030 World Expo. “Please trust us.”
Jin also announced a short solo album at the concert, which is expected to be released shortly before his enlistment.
BTS performers will likely enter the military at a time of heightened tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang. On Friday, the South Korean military confirmed a wave of aggressive military actions from the north including launching an SRBM and firing 170 artillery shots in the general direction of the sea. Ten North Korean warplanes also flew close to the countries’ border, known formally as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
“If the enemy strikes first, no country can guarantee 100 percent interception and preemptive response,” Yoon, South Korea’s president, said in response on Sunday. “However, the massive punishment and retaliation strategy, the final stage of our three-axis strategy, would offer a considerable psychological and social deterrence [for the North] when deciding to advance a war.”
Yonhap confirmed with an unnamed official that Yoon’s office has a 24-hour watch waiting for North Korea to detonate a nuclear weapon.
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