Ministry Of Culture, Sports And Tourism To Make Decision On BTS's Military Service By December

The ongoing issue of BTS’s military service may come to a conclusion by the end of this year.

On October 5, Minister Park Bo Kyun of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) attended the National Assembly’s parliamentary inspection of the administration and announced that the issue of BTS’s military service will be decided by December of this year.

During the parliamentary audit, People Power Party member Lee Yong Ho requested Minister Park to actively review the issue of BTS’s military service. In response to this, Minister Park replied, “Member Jin’s enlistment is set to be sorted out by December, but the MCST will finalize our stance as soon as possible before then.”

Minister Park added, “We are comprehensively reviewing the issue by looking at various aspects including the points that national defense is a sacred duty, military service is a symbol of fairness, BTS has made Korea known as the vanguard of K-culture and created a huge economic ripple effect, there are equity issues between popular artists including BTS and those who practice fine arts, this will affect the group when one of the BTS members joins the army, there are [results of] public opinion analysis and opinions of men in their 20s, and so on.”

Jin, the eldest member of BTS, was born in 1992 and is currently 29 years old. He must enlist in the military according to the 2020 amendment to the Military Service Act.

If the amendment to the Military Service Act which is currently pending in the National Assembly is passed, the BTS members will be freed from military service obligations. However, if this special exception does not apply, Jin will have to enlist in the military early next year. After that, the remaining BTS members must also enlist.

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