A sustained movement advocated the exemption for the members of the Star group. The preocupations of the ministry concerning its workforce and the fairness of treatment of men forced to do their service have closed the debates.
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In the debate in South Korea on a possible exemption from military service of K-POP stars, the concerns concerning the staff of the army and the fairness of treatment prevailed. This is what emerges from the announcement, Monday, October 17, by Hybe, the parent company of Big Hit Entertainment (BHE), the production company of the BTS group, of the will of the Septte to fulfill its military obligations. A well-greeted decision, according to the daily Korea Times, which peeled the comments posted on Wersee, a platform of fans of South Korean pop. The keyword “support” was one of the most used in reaction to the ad.
The elder of Boys Band, Kim Seok-Jin, alias “Jin”, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in December, will therefore be mobilized. And the other six members will follow one another in the army until 2027. In South Korea, the service is compulsory for all men aged 18 to 28 and lasts between eighteen and twenty-one month. Substracting there can lead to prison, even if a law of 2020 authorizes conscience objectors to carry out a “replacement service” of three years in a detention center.
The debate on the exemption from BTS, or even K-Pop stars in general, ignites Korea for several years, even if the members of the group have always been ready to do their service.
Exemptions for Olympic champions
To date, only musicians, classical dancers and specialists in the arts of the international competition winners as well as gold medalist athletes at the Olympic Games or Asian Games can be exempt. This was particularly the case for the football star his Heung-Min in 2018, after the South Korean team victory at the Asian Games. The South Korean president, the curator Yoon Seok-Youl, plans to expand the list of exemptions to researchers and high-level engineers specialists in sensitive fields, such as microprocessors.
Artists of popular culture are therefore not affected by exemptions. However, BTS has changed the situation. Launched in 2013, the group whose acronym can mean “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, literally “Boy-Scouts to the Baler”, or “Beyond the Scenes”, “Beyond the scene”, has little A little imposed worldwide until becoming, in 2017, the first South Korean training to dominate the American ranking Billboard. In 2021, BTS won the title of artist of the year at the American Music Awards. All while developing a “BTS Army” of nearly 100 million fans worldwide.
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