Big Hit, the band’s label and management business, said Monday that all seven members of the globally mega-popular K-pop band BTS will serve in the South Korean military.
According to Big Hit, BTS intends to reunite as a group “around 2025,” once all seven members have completed their military service.
“Since the band’s inception over ten years ago, BTS has climbed to international success, smashed records, and rocketed K-Pop into the global stratosphere,” according to Big Hit’s statement. “BIGHIT MUSIC has concentrated on the moment when it is possible to respect the requirements of the country and for these healthy young men to serve alongside their countrymen, and that moment has arrived.”
According to Big Hit, the first BTS member to join the military would be the group’s eldest member, Kim Seok-jin, also known as Jin. The 29-year-old intends to join the military as soon as his solo project is out later this month.
Due to persistent North Korean threats, South Korea’s conscription system mandates all able-bodied men to serve at least 18 months in the armed forces by the age of 28. Certain athletes and performing artists, particularly those working in classical and traditional music, are excluded.
In gratitude of BTS’s efforts to “improve Korea’s foreign image,” the government offered Jin a two-year postponement in joining the army when he reached 28 in 2020. He was one of the first K-pop stars to be granted such a pardon.
In June, the band announced via video that it will be taking an unspecified amount of time off. “After 10 years of living as BTS and working on all our schedules, it’s physically impossible for me to mature anymore,” the group’s rapper RM, also known as Kim Nam-joon, stated in that video.
