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

[My Everything]

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.

Source

[RussianRoulette]

At this point I don’t think there is anyone who wants them to be exempt except for politicians and really extreme armys. Just let them enlist already…

By next year literally everyone would need to enlist except Jungkook.

[ray20220826]

To clarify, the culture ministry isn't deciding anything except its stance re their enlistment - an advisory opinion.

The defense ministry already stated that they must serve.

The purpose of the culture ministry's advisory opinion would be to buttress support for the tabled legislation to exempt them from service, assuming the culture ministry advises in favor of an exemption. That legislation is presently the only reasonably possible/foreseeable thing that would prevent Jin's enlistment, as the defense ministry has already issued its decision.

The legislation was tabled by a member of the Democratic Party, which is in power in the legislature but not the executive. This legislation would allow the legislature to override the executive's (i.e. the defense ministry's) present decision that they must serve. 

I have no doubt Hybe is pushing (lobbying, making campaign contributions) to get this legislation through as soon as possible, with or without the culture ministry's advisory opinion. They are probably also appealing directly to the president's office as well, for an order overriding the determination of its own defense ministry. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by ray20220826

[iKnife BurnCat]

Jin will hit 40 and they still be deciding

[Ghosty]

honestly at this rate, jin could've been 70% done with his enlistment already lmao

[Guest]

I'll shave Jin's head myself if I hear about people deciding on deciding this yet again