J-Hope, a member of Grammy-nominated K-pop boy band BTS, began his mandatory military service in South Korea yesterday, the second member of the group to do so.
The singer kept a low profile as a van carrying him entered the venue for his military enlistment ceremony in the city of Wonju, about 87km away from Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.
“I love you, ARMY. I’ll go and come back safely!” the singer, whose real name is Jung Ho-seok, said on Monday in a post on the Weverse fan platform, alongside a picture of himself with a buzzcut.
Photo: AFP
More than 10,000 comments from fans wished him a safe return after completing his military duties.
Spokespeople for HYBE, which owns the band’s agency, Bighit Music, declined to confirm the details of his enlistment.
J-Hope, 29, is the second member of the popular septet to enlist following Jin, the oldest, who joined the military in December last year.
All able-bodied men in South Korea between the ages of 18 and 28 must serve for 18 to 21 months.
The military enlistment of BTS members has drawn attention from not just fans, but also politicians in South Korea. Some lawmakers floated the idea of granting the hit group an exemption from mandatory military service to allow them to continue to perform instead.
However, the band’s agency last year said that all members planned to complete their military duty by 2025.
J-Hope said during a livestream last week that he was looking forward to his time in the military.
“It will be a new experience and I will be learning to fit into a new society, and I’m excited about that,” he said. “In the meantime, what I look forward to is living each day in a normal way, which is different from my usual lifestyle. This could make me healthier.”
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