{"id":1232566,"date":"2022-01-23T01:23:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T06:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1232566"},"modified":"2022-01-23T01:23:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T06:23:29","slug":"south-korea-leftist-presidential-contender-risks-race-questioning-military-service-exemption-for-k-pop-superstars-bts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-korea-leftist-presidential-contender-risks-race-questioning-military-service-exemption-for-k-pop-superstars-bts\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea: Leftist Presidential Contender Risks Race Questioning Military Service Exemption for K-Pop Superstars BTS"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsouth-korea-leftist-presidential-contender-risks-race-questioning-military-service-exemption-for-k-pop-superstars-bts%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1232566&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/BTSVMAs1-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Lee Jae-myung, a left-wing candidate for South Korea\u2019s upcoming presidential election, \u201cvoiced skepticism\u201d on Thursday over suggestions Seoul should grant military service exemptions to members of \u201cBTS,\u201d a South Korean pop music boy band, Yonhap News Agency <a href=\"https:\/\/en.yna.co.kr\/view\/AEN20220120006600315?input=red\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMandatory military service is a public duty set by the Constitution and we must be prudent about granting exceptions,\u201d Lee said when asked by a reporter about the issue at a campaign event on January 20.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t deny (BTS\u2019) contribution to the nation, but we must be careful because it will be hard to draw the line if we expand (the scope of exceptions) like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>South Korea\u2019s constitution requires all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 28 to serve in the Republic of Korea Armed Forces for a period of at least 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>BTS, a South Korean boy band that performs popular music, is comprised of seven members known as Jin (29), Suga (28), J-Hope (27), RM (27), Jimin (26), V (26), and Jungkook (24).&nbsp;South Korea\u2019s left-wing, ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2022\/01\/14\/south-korea-presidential-candidate-promises-free-hair-loss-treatment\/\">chose<\/a> Lee as its official nominee for the nation\u2019s upcoming presidential election on March 9, 2022. The 57-year-old previously served as the governor of South Korea\u2019s Gyeonggi province from 2018 to 2021.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Some South Korean athletes and classical musicians have obtained exemptions from South Korea\u2019s military conscription in the past by demonstrating \u201ctheir roles in elevating the country\u2019s reputation overseas,\u201d according to Yonhap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has also been talk of whether BTS members should be allowed to carry out alternative military duty in recognition of their contribution to South Korea\u2019s national image with their unprecedented [U.S.] Billboard-topping hits,\u201d the Seoul-based news agency noted on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn perspective of fairness, I think it is more desirable to allow military service deferment (for BTS), and exemptions should be refrained from as much as possible,\u201d Lee <a href=\"https:\/\/en.yna.co.kr\/view\/AEN20211202006600315\">told<\/a> a forum hosted by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club on December 2, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as I know, BTS is not asking for exemptions, and when the political circles stepped up to call for exemptions, its fan club ARMY questioned why the political circles were meddling,\u201d Lee told reporters at the time, according to Yonhap.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/south-koreas-military-is-shrinkingsome-say-women-must-answer-the-call-of-duty-11622727598\">reported<\/a> in June 2021 that \u201cable-bodied men must report for duty before they turn 28 years old\u201d in South Korea according to the nation\u2019s constitution. It remains unclear if BTS has already been granted special privileges regarding South Korea\u2019s military conscription, as two of its members are currently aged 28 or older.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lee Jae-myung, a left-wing candidate for South Korea\u2019s upcoming presidential election, \u201cvoiced skepticism\u201d on Thursday over suggestions Seoul should grant military service exemptions to members of \u201cBTS,\u201d a South Korean &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1232566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}