South Korea’s Criteria for Military Exemption is Outdated

Kim Seok-jin was the 1st BTS member to enlist

On October 17, I woke up to the news that BTS’ eldest member, Kim Seok-jin, was initiating the process to begin his mandatory military duty in South Korea. The press release from Bighit Music read:

Other members of the group plan to carry out their military service based on their own individual plans. Both the company and the members of BTS are looking forward to reconvening as a group again around 2025 following their service commitment.

In other words, Jin — who enlisted on December 13, 2022 — is doing what he and his six bandmates have said all along: when it is their turn to serve in the military, they will do so, like every other able-bodied Korean male.

But the fact is, not every able-bodied Korean male serves in the military. There are exemptions for citizens who have performed extraordinary feats, such as elite athletes (soccer player Son Heung-min) and classical musicians (pianist Cho Seong-jin). And if a Korean wins a gold medal in ESports at the Asian Games, he will be exempted. But to date, no Korean pop star has been exempted from military duty for being notable in their field. I’ll get to that in a bit.

The government policy on military enrollment presents itself as being fair. But in reality, it’s a crapshoot on who is considered worthy of having represented South Korea well enough on a national and international scale. It’s not lost on me that patriarchy and bias are at play. Exempt a medal-winning Olympian, because that’s a masculine endeavor. Exempt a classical musician who wins an international competition, because classical music — unlike pop music — is connotated with intelligence.

But do you know who is a literal genius? BTS leader Kim Nam-joon. Why is South Korea not exempting this brilliant man, who also helped shape the world’s most famous pop group? (And to be clear, I don’t mean to imply that he should be the only BTS member to be excused from having to serve. I’m using his huge brain to show the hypocrisy of who gets exempted.)

So let’s see who else is spared from having to join the armed forces. A Korea Times article noted that chaebol children have a disproportionate number of exemptions compared to the general public. About 35.1 percent of chaebol family members from the top 11 conglomerates did not serve in the military.

You know who that reminded me of? A certain former U.S. president who got out of being drafted and shipped off to Vietnam because he theoretically had … bone spurs. In other words, if you are rich enough…if you are connected enough…you can manipulate a system to your advantage.

Sometimes, you don’t even have to be wealthy or have the right parents to earn an exemption. Certain students at the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) don’t have to serve. If you are a doctoral candidate, you are eligible for military exemption. I get it. South Korea loves smart people. But this emphasis on academic (or athletic) prowess as a measure of a person’s worth is obscene, unfair, and short-sighted.

With that said, I’m kind of curious about the average IQ of a KAIST Ph.D candidate. Is it higher than, say, Kim Nam-joon’s?

So now let’s get to the K-pop artists. Where do they fall in the realm of exemptions? No K-pop idol has been relinquished from military duty for any reason other than family hardship or being unfit (physically or mentally) to serve. Not Rain. Not Taemin (SHINee). Not pre-“Gangnam Style” PSY (who actually was re-drafted for not serving his full term on his first go round).

BTS has said all along that they would serve. They were never the ones who requested an exemption. Government officials — including the Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister as well as a former presidential candidate — brought this up in public, which some people wrongly conflated as BTS asking for favors. Unable to come to a decision on its own, the government even resorted to asking South Koreans whether BTS should or shouldn’t be drafted.

It’s disappointing to see that the South Korean decision makers regard BTS’ historic achievements as too ordinary to be allotted the preferential treatment they give to athletes, classical musicians and academics. Truthfully, I’m not even opposed to BTS being drafted. But let’s be real. Military exemptions have never been about fairness. So either make every able-bodied male serve his time. Or, exempt those who have irrefutably stood out for excelling on the highest level.

While one could argue the artistic merits of BTS vs. any other artist, what is undeniable is that the septet has brought their country the kind of pop culture clout that the government couldn’t have dreamed of even a decade ago. The average person may not be able to name a single K-pop song, but they more than likely have heard of BTS. Those three letters carry a prestigious cachet in the global market and it’s one that the South Korean government has taken advantage of — asking these young men to represent them at the United Nations and, most recently, at the free Yet to Come in Busan concert on October 15. They were picked because of their star power to help Busan win the bid to host the World Expo 2030.

When this concert was announced, cynics may have speculated that this was BTS’s last-ditch effort to earn military exemption. In reality, it was their goodbye gift to their fandom, ARMY … until 2025.

Note: I wrote this article in October in between a multitude of doctor appointments. Since then, I’ve made an update about Jin’s enlistment date. If there is a flagrant error, please let me know and I will fix that. If you simply don’t like my opinions, I can live with that. xxoo

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