From the ARMY to the army: Jung Kook begins military service

All seven members of BTS have now been conscripted into mandatory military service in South Korea, which means an 18-month hiatus (at least) for the K-pop superstars.

The first member to enlist, Jin, began his service last December, followed by J-Hope, Suga, RM, and V. This Tuesday (December 13), Jimin and Jung Kook were the last to sign up.

For Jung Kook, this comes shortly after a promotional tour for his wildly successful solo album, Golden, which saw the singer performing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and to crowds of adoring fans from a Times Square rooftop, as well as being a Dazed cover star.

According to the group’s manager, BTS will get back together around 2025, but it’s possible they will perform for their fellow troops during their enlistment – as other K-pop acts have done before them. Over the past year, there has been a huge debate in South Korea over whether the band should have been enlisted at all. Military service is mandatory for all able-bodied men over the age of 18, but the government does make exceptions for some people, including Olympic athletes and some classical musicians.

Pop stars, however, are not eligible, something which has struck many South Korea commentators as unfair: many have argued that BTS, thanks to their global influence and contribution to the economy, deserved an exemption. The South Korean government had previously introduced a new law which allowed K-Pop stars (among other cultural figures) to defer enlisting until the age of 30, but declined to exempt them altogether. 

Several BTS members have said farewell to their fans on social media. Posting a picture of himself with a fresh, army-mandated buzzcut, V wrote on fan platform Weverse: “I think I’ll be fine except for one thing, that I won’t be able to make happy memories with you for a while, which is the hardest part”. The group’s record label issued a statement asking fans of the band not to gather outside the military enlistment sites, for safety reasons, although some have already done so.

It might be a sad day for the ARMY, but no doubt BTS will come out stronger on the other side. There’s a historical precedent for this: when Elvis – surely the Jung Kook of his day – was enlisted for US military service in the late 1950s, it broadened his appeal and made him even more popular (even though he fell in love with a 14-year old as he was doing it.)