Since 1957, South Korea has implemented its compulsory military service for all of its male citizens from the age of 18 to 35. This includes athletes, celebrities, K-Pop idols, musicians, and the like.
However, current conscription regulations in South Korea state that “athletes who win medals in the Olympic Games or gold medals in the Asian Games are granted exemptions from military service…” This would mean that individuals will only complete 4 weeks of basic military training and continue their sports career in the 34 months of their duty. This exemption was also extended to classical musicians.
Some of the notable athletes who have been granted this exemption were Tottenham Hotspur captain and South Korean national team captain Son Heung-min (2018 Asian Games gold medalist), Badminton player Lee Young-dae (2008 Olympic gold medalist), Tennis player Chung Hyeon (2014 Asian Games gold medalist), and Baseball player Lee Jung-hoo (2018 Asian Games gold medalist).
And now, following their explosive win at the recently concluded Hangzhou Asian Games, the GOAT in League of Legends, Lee Sang-hyeok or ‘Faker’ and the Korean national Esports team brought home gold medals and were granted eligibility for exemption from their military service. The Hangzhou Asian Games was the first event ever to include Esports, or competitive video gaming as an official competitive sport.
This, however, proved to be controversial in South Korea, where social media users once again discuss “fairness” in giving out military exemptions. The most that South Korean law can give to men in the media, pop culture, art, or higher education is to defer their service until they turn 30.
Some Korean social media users believe that military exemptions should be granted to popular artists who have made an outstanding impact globally—such as BTS. Current conscription regulations do not include much on popular culture, such as internationally recognized awards, as opposed to the 42 competition categories stipulated by the law that count for military service exemptions.
This means that the awards that BTS has won over the years still do not count toward granting them an exemption from their military service. 3 members of BTS have already begun their service—Jin, J-Hope, and Suga.
Critics have proposed ideas for criteria to be considered in terms of granting exemptions to artists in popular culture, and that these criteria would have to be “measurable, diverse, and distinct.” Another said that, “If the public believes that BTS, with their exceptional global presence, deserves military service exemption, it’s worth considering. However, the criteria is ambiguous. Rather than standardizing the criteria, we could have a variety of them and assign scores to each, then evaluate the overall total.”
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