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SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Seok-jin, the oldest member of the worldwide Okay-pop phenomenon BTS, turns 28 on Friday. On Tuesday, South Korea’s Parliament gave him an early birthday current.
Mr. Kim’s birthday might have marked the tip of his present profession as a Okay-pop star. Till now, all able-bodied South Korean males have been required to enlist within the army for about 20 months as soon as they flip 28, if not sooner.
South Korea’s Nationwide Meeting, enamored of BTS’s international success, got here to Mr. Kim’s rescue by passing a revision of the nation’s Army Service Act. The revised regulation lets high Okay-pop stars like Mr. Kim postpone their army service till they flip 30. Mr. Kim, who goes by his stage identify Jin, will now be capable to carry out for 2 extra years at what may very well be the peak of his profession.
The information immediately electrified BTS followers on-line.
“What a day to be alive,” one follower wrote on Twitter.
Underneath the revised regulation, Okay-pop entertainers who’ve acquired authorities medals for serving to unfold or elevate the nation’s cultural affect around the globe can apply for deferment of their army service. All seven members of BTS meet that requirement. They have been awarded the medal in 2018.
The announcement of the so-called BTS regulation is an extended sought-after victory for followers of male Okay-pop stars. Underneath South Korea’s conscription system, army responsibility has been billed as a sacred ceremony of passage for all younger males. The federal government has allowed some exceptions, however its standards have come underneath scrutiny lately.
For many years, high athletes, like Olympians or Asian Video games medal-winners, have been excused from army service on the grounds that they improve nationwide status. Draft exemptions are additionally granted to classical and people musicians who win sure awards. Okay-pop followers have argued it’s unfair that world-class Okay-pop stars are denied that privilege, although Okay-pop has change into a world phenomenon.
When members of well-known boy bands report for boot camp, crowds of feminine followers from throughout Asia typically collect to bid them farewell.
Lawmakers launched a invoice for revising the Army Service Act in September, after BTS turned the first-ever South Korean group to high the US Billboard Scorching 100 singles chart with the tune “Dynamite.”
“It’s a sacred responsibility to defend our nation, however that doesn’t imply that everybody has to hold a weapon,” Noh Woong-rae, a senior lawmaker within the governing Democratic Occasion, stated in an October assertion supporting particular remedy for BTS.
In South Korea, greater than 200,000 younger males every year should interrupt their research or careers to hitch the army. Conscription is seen as essential to the nation’s protection in opposition to North Korea, and South Korea can’t afford too many exemptions.
After a long time of low birthrates, the nation will quickly lack sufficient younger males to take care of its conscripted army at 620,000 members, protection officers say.
In October, the Army Manpower Administration, which oversees the draft, stated that though it might not exempt high Okay-pop stars from army service, it might allow them to a minimum of postpone it.
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