Former Presidential Aide Shares Story Of BTS's Meeting With President Moon Jae In In France

Tak Hyun Min, a presidential planning advisory committee member to Korean president Moon Jae In, recently shared a behind-the-scenes story of BTS’s performance in France last year.

During a podcast appearance on June 22, he talked about his time as the presidential aide for protocol. One of the stories he shared was about BTS and their performance at the “Resonance of Korean Musicians,” an event to promote friendly relations between Korea and France.

He said, “President Moon Jae In and first lady Kim Jung Sook were in Paris for the event, which happened to be taking place on the one day BTS had a day off from their concerts, I think they were performing in Germany and moving on to the U.K.” Tak Hyun Min explained that he had met with BTS and their agency Big Hit Entertainment earlier in New York to ask if they would be willing to visit Paris to attend the event with the president, to which they happily agreed.

Tak Hyun Min added, “We said we’d be able to cover their traveling expenses, and the representative from their agency smiled. We were planning to book the members business class tickets, but they asked if it was okay if they just used their private plane. We calculated how much it would cost for BTS and their staff to be brought to the event, and it was going to cost us 100 to 200 million won (approximately $86,300 to $172,500), which was the entire budget for the concert.”

The story had a happy note though, as Tak Hyun Min explained that BTS were more than happy to attend the event and didn’t ask for any payment or compensation. The members were gifted with official Blue House watches that were signed by the president. Tak Hyun Min said, “We were very grateful to BTS that they were willing to accept the watches as their sole payment for being at the event. Thanks to them, we were able to have a great event.”

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