Defense minister maintains difficulty of granting BTS military exemptions
Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup has maintained that it would be “difficult to expand the exemption system” for members of boy band BTS who are set to serve their mandatory military service.
During an interpellation at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Lee said that due to “aspects of fairness on fulfilling mandatory military service, it is difficult to extend the alternative program system to BTS.”
According to a Realmeter poll on whether pop culture artists who have “elevated the nation’s reputation” should be allowed to serve alternative programs, 60.9 percent of respondents voted “yes” and 34.3 percent voted “no,” the National Defense Committee said Sunday. The poll was conducted between Aug. 14 and 15 on 1,018 respondents over the age of 18.
Under the Military Service Act, prominent figures in arts and sports such as Olympic and Asian Games medalists and globally recognized, award-winning classical musicians, can complete 34 months of alternative service. There are no provisions for pop culture figures.
During an appearance on MBC’s “100 Minute Debate” on Tuesday, renowned music critic Lim Jin-mo said that although he “agrees that BTS has achieved immense records and that they should be rewarded,” the members still should not be exempt from military service.
“I’m thrilled to see pop culture icons gaining more social recognition, but when you think about it, the pop culture field is based on profits from investment. This means that the biggest reward for them is receiving love from the public,” Lim said. “That’s enough for them. No matter how much they’ve contributed to society and overseas, giving them the privilege to skip military goes against fairness.”
He continued by saying that classical music needs “protection” as its takes up a significantly small amount of the entire culture industry, and that pop culture gets better compensation commercially.
The process of expanding the alternative service system is complicated, Lim added, because the law would require classification on how many Billboard-topping tracks or cover stories in world-famous magazines would qualify for exemptions.
Lee Ki-sik, commissioner of the Military Manpower Administration, told Yonhap on Monday that the military exemption system’s framework should be “quickly dealt with,” and that “if pop culture artists are included, then it may garner feelings of discrimination, discrepancy and discouragement among the younger male generation who are fulfilling their military duties.”
BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]