[SBS Star] VIDEO: JIN Says It Was All for ARMY that BTS Did Not Speak About Military Enlistment Until Now

JIN of K-pop boy group BTS shared that it was for ARMY (the name of BTS' fandom) that the group did not speak about their military enlistment until now. 

On October 28, JIN went live on WeVerse to spend some time with fans while in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

During the live broadcast, JIN talked about his military enlistment; his agency recently confirmed that BTS will begin their military service, starting with JIN. 

At that time, the agency said, "JIN will withdraw his deferral of military enlistment at the end of this month. He is to act in accordance with the usual procedures for the service after that. The rest of the members will enlist in the military too after that, according to their own plans." 

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Regarding reasons why the members of BTS were keeping themselves quiet about the military enlistment until this moment, JIN said, "Our initial plan was to start our military service following the release of 'BE' in the end of 2020. But the next song 'Dynamite' did so well that we decided to release more songs that fans will like, which were 'Butter' and 'Permission to Dance'."

He continued, "Since 'Butter' and 'Permission to Dance' also made a great success, we thought it wasn't the right time to go to the military. 'Permission to Dance' was our last song before enlistment, but we were all like, 'We should have a concert before we go. We'll miss performing at a concert.' Then, we held our concert and successfully wrapped it up." 

"Following the concert, there was the GRAMMYs right away. So, we chose to attend the ceremony and enlist after that. Since I don't like the cold weather, I let the agency know that I wanted to enlist in May or June. They agreed to that. In June when we held a live broadcast and told you that we were going to focus on individual activities from then on, that was us indirectly telling you that we were preparing for our enlistment.", he added. 
Then, JIN explained that BTS was asked if they could perform in Busan for '2030 Busan World Expo' around that time. 

The BTS' oldest member stated, "I wasn't sure whether we should accept the proposal, because I wanted to enlist in fall, the latest. I was like, 'Shall I go now without the concert when it's still nice and warm, or go in the freezing winter that I hate, but perform for our fans before I go?' I agonized hard."   

He resumed, "But the members told me, 'This may actually be our last concert together before the military. We haven't really been able to perform for our Korean fans recently, so we should do this.' So, I decided to go for it for our fans. The reason why I announced to withdraw the postponement of my enlistment two days after '2030 Busan World Expo Concert: Yet to Come' was because I didn't want fans to cry at our Busan concert." 

Afterwards, JIN touched upon BTS members receiving criticism from the public for avoiding speaking about the topic and deferring their enlistment as late as they could, because they were waiting for the politics to confirm their special alternative service or military exemption, which they were discussing hard at that time. 

JIN commented, "We received a lot of criticism for that, and it was pretty upsetting. I felt like I was wrongly accused. We only wanted our fans not to cry during our concert in Busan. It's definitely a little sad that we got that heavily criticized, but I'm glad that we didn't have a tearful concert. I'm happy with that." 

Lastly, JIN added that he would withdraw his postponement of enlistment in a couple of days after returning to Korea from Argentina. 

When he is done signing papers for that, he will get a notice from the Military Manpower Administration and will have to enlist in the military as an active-duty soldier soon after that. 
 
(Credit= WeVerse) 

(SBS Star)