BTS is not qualified for exemption from mandatory military service, even with the new revamped guidelines being implemented by the government.
According to Korean culture minister Park Yang Woo, the government has been instituting revamps on the terms of mandatory service to make the system more fair. However, global award winning athletes and classical musicians are the only ones granted exemption from military service.
While BTS members received countless global awards for their music, the culture official said that the exemption may not apply to RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jimin and Jungkook since it was hard to apply the current guidelines to pop culture entertainers.
"In the case of BTS, I personally wish I could allow exemptions for them under certain standards, but the Military Manpower Administration and the Ministry of National Defense [in charge of conscription] are inclined to downsize the overall scope [of exemption]," Park said in a Metro UK article.
Since the current guidelines only apply to classical arts and sports, the minister said that it will be hard to set a fixed criteria for pop culture entertainment.
It was previously reported that Jin will be the first BTS member to enlist in the military next year when he turns 28. Suga is set to follow after, as the oldest members of the group.
BTS Jin earlier said that he was ready to be called upon to do his duty at any time as a Korean man. He said that when the time comes, he will be ready to respond and do his best.
ARMYs recently found hope that BTS would qualify for an exemption after an article cited a Ministry of Defense official in an interview. The official reportedly said that if BTS did not qualify for an outright exemption given the current guidelines, they might consider an alternative service program.
The official reportedly said that the Ministry of Defense was still debating about the alternative service program and the final terms have not been finalized yet.
Because Jin's enlistment was still a year away, fans are not giving up hope that the alternative program would be implemented before the BTS member's mandatory service.
Meanwhile, Big Hit Entertainment allayed panicked ARMYs who were alarmed by reports that Jin was going to enlist to the military this year, and not in 2020, Paper Magazine reported.
Jin will turn 27 when he celebrates his birthday this December. Meanwhile, apart from campaigning for BTS' exemption to mandatory service, ARMYs are also actively petitioning for the members to be enlisted in the same unit. The Change.org petition already gathered 25,000 signatures.
