SEOUL, Oct. 18 (BUS): All members of K-pop supergroup BTS will go into the military for mandatory service, starting with the oldest member, the group’s agency says.
“Jin will cancel his enlistment deferment request at the end of this month and will follow the enlistment procedures required by the Military Manpower Administration,” Big Hit Music Entertainment said in a public notice to the local stock exchange. The other members will in turn perform their military duties according to their individual plans.” Yonhap reported.
Jane, born in 1992, has had his enlistment deferred until the end of this year under the Military Service Act amended in 2020.
In South Korea, all healthy men are required to serve in the military for about two years. But the current law allows award-winning athletes and classical musicians who have been recommended by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to undertake alternative services in their fields of specialization in lieu of active military service.
Bills that would include world-renowned pop culture artists, such as BTS, in the program are still pending in the National Assembly amid an ongoing debate over whether the K-pop giant should receive exemptions in recognition of his contribution to improving the country’s brand image.
With Monday’s decision, Barrier will stop working together as a group for the time being.
Jin is expected to enter the military sometime after his solo single was dropped, as he announced during a concert in the southeastern coastal city of Busan on Saturday that he will be the second BTS member to make his solo debut, after J-Hope.
But Jane could go through this year at the earliest if he cancels the postponement this month and if there are a few more people waiting to go into the military, according to officials with the Department of Military Manpower.
“So far, we have discussed with the artists about their plans to serve in the military,” Big Hit Music said. “We thought a lot about the timing of announcing the decision and saw that now, when the concert to promote Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo is over, is the best time,” she added.
The agency then expressed the hope that BTS will be reunited as a full group by 2025, and asked for people’s generous understanding of the difficulty of determining the exact time frame.
BTS debuted with the single “2 Cool 4 Skool” in June 2013 and rose to international fame. It became the first K-pop act to top Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart and Billboard 200 chart of albums chart, and now has six songs and albums that have reached the top of the charts, respectively.
The agency said, “BTS will focus on individual projects for a period of time in accordance with the members’ individual plans to perform military service.”
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