Their army of fans won’t be seeing them again anytime soon. “Tired from years of debate” on the subject, tells the daily The Korea Times, the South Korean boy band BTS, also called “Bangtan Boys”, will indeed perform their military service.
The K-pop group hoped they could be exempt, as are some classical athletes or musicians in the country, under the terms of the Military Service Act. “But the National Assembly rejected this idea”, explains the daily Hankyoreh. In South Korea, all physically healthy men must serve the army for about two years before reaching their 30s. Kim Seok-jin, known in the group as Jin, will reach that age in December. He just canceled his request to defer military service.
The other BTS members will perform their service later, depending on their schedules. A lack of coordination that has surprised some pragmatic fans, who want the group to do their military service at the same time so that they can reform as quickly as possible, reports The Korea Times. For now, their reunion could take place “around 2025”, according to the press release published on October 17 by the label by Bangtan Boys, Big Hit Music. Jungkook, the youngest of the group, was born in 1997.
A loss for fans and the South Korean economy
In the meantime, priority will be given to the members’ solo careers. Same story as in June 2022, when the group announced that it was taking a break for this purpose. According to the English version of Chosun Ilbo, another Seoul daily, Jin has already announced the release of a solo project during the Bangtan Boys’ last concert, which brought together 50,000 fans, on October 15, in Busan.
That was before the news about their military service broke. “As of Monday afternoon, phrases like ‘We’ll be waiting for you’, ‘See you in 2025’, et ‘#ForeverWithBTS’ were trending on Twitter, tells the site in English of the JoongAng Ilbo. The Seoul daily also notes that an exemption would have seemed unfair to the many South Koreans forced to serve in the military.
It’s not just fans who should miss the BTS septet. The boy band brings in the South Korean economy several billion dollars a year, recall several sources.