According to South Korean media, Jimin and Jung Kook, the final two members of K-pop sensation BTS to sign up for required military duty, were scheduled to start their training on Tuesday. As a result, the entire megagroup was put on hiatus.
In South Korea, the mandatory military service for all physically fit men is a minimum 18 months.
The group’s eldest member, Jin, enlisted last year after years of deliberation about whether BTS merited a special exemption; the other members will follow suit in 2023.
The BTS septet has become a global cultural phenomenon, selling out stadiums around the world and dominating key US charts while raking in billions for South Korea’s economy and building an international legion of fans known as ARMY.
BTS members J-Hope and SUGA enlisted earlier this year. Two more members, RM and V, enlisted on Monday.
Now, the final two members of the group will begin their five-week basic training at an army boot camp on Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency reported.
“I think I will be able to rely on Jung Kook a lot since we are enlisting together,” said Jimin during a livestream with fans on web platform Weverse late Monday.
“I’ll be back after doing a good job,” he added.
During an earlier livestream, Jung Kook thanked his fans and said he had led a “busy life”.
In November, BTS’s record label BIGHIT MUSIC declared that the remaining four members of the group would enroll, although they withheld any further information.
Earlier this year, Bang Si-hyuk, the chairman of BTS’s agency, said that the band’s mandatory military duty was impeding K-pop’s global expansion.
Certain individuals, such as Olympic medalists and certain classical artists, are granted exemptions from military service by South Korea; however, K-pop celebrities are not qualified under the current scheme.
In addition, a number of male K-pop celebrities have encountered difficulties in continuing their careers after performing their tasks in an extremely competitive business where performers can readily substituted.
The seven members of BTS’s group, HYBE, stated in September that their contracts had been renewed, but they did not provide any other information.
The announcement suggests that following their military duty, all seven of the members would probably continue to work for the organization.
