BTS K-pop star Jin reveals shaved head as he begins military service

BTS K-pop star Jin reveals shaved head as he begins military service – the first member of South Korea’s biggest ever band to enlist

• BTS star Jin has revealed his shaved head in preparation for his military service
• Jin will undertake 18-months of military service, like every South Korean man
• As the oldest at 30, he is the first member of BTS to enter military training

BTS star Jin has revealed his shaved head as he prepares to start his mandatory military training in South Korea.

As the oldest member of the group, Jin, 30, is the first member of the group to enlist for national service. He arrived at the training base in Yeoncheon, north of Seoul, on Tuesday.

This band is currently on a hiatus after an announcement this year left fans heartbroken over the K-pop juggernaut’s uncertain future.

The septet is widely considered the country’s biggest-ever cultural phenomenon – selling out stadiums around the world and dominating the charts while raking in billions and building a global legion of fans known as ARMYs.

Jin revealed his shaved head on Tuesday as he prepares to enter mandatory military service in Yeoncheon, South Korea

Jin is pictured in November 2020, before BTS’ announced hiatus this year

All able-bodied men in South Korea must serve at least 18 months in the military, and while there was a years-long debate about whether BTS deserved an exemption, they confirmed in October that all members will enlist.

Jin – whose full name is Kim Seok-jin – reported to a frontline boot camp on Tuesday to kickstart his 18 months of military service.

He was riding one of the black vans that arrived in a row around 20 minutes before the deadline to enlist, according to BTS’s agency HYBE.

Hundreds of media personnel and BTS fans packed an intersection in front of the boot camp’s main gate, where a sign reads ‘A cradle for top class combat soldiers’.

‘We have mixed feelings today because on one hand, it’s normal that he does this enlistment because it’s an obligation anyway for any Korean men,’ said Veronique, a 32-year-old fan from Indonesia.

‘But on the other hand we cannot see him for a minimum of 18 months … Happy but also sad but also proud,’ she said.

The location of Jin’s boot camp close to the border with North Korea, with which the South remains technically at war, has sparked local media speculation that he is expected to be deployed to a ‘frontline unit’ after training.

Fans were stunned in June when BTS revealed they were going on hiatus, citing exhaustion and pressure as well as the desire to pursue solo careers.

But analysts said the announcement was timed because of the compulsory military duty.

Police officers and soldiers stand guard outside a South Korean army boot camp near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas before the arrival of Jin on Tuesday

A motorcade carrying Jin, a member of K-pop juggernaut BTS, arrives at a boot camp of a front-line Army division in Yeoncheon, South Korea on Tuesday

A fan of Jin, a member of K-pop juggernaut BTS, holds up his photo in front of a boot camp of a front-line Army division in Yeoncheon, South Korea on Tuesday

Fans wait for the arrival of Jin, the oldest member of the K-pop band BTS, outside a South Korean army boot camp on Tuesday

The group will reunite around 2025, when its seven members have completed their service.

‘For a while, it’s true that there were many fans who would spend days just crying,’ a South Korean fan, who runs the Twitter account @5heterotopia, told AFP.

Nimah Mustafa, a 20-year-old fan in Dubai, added: ‘(Jin’s absence) will be like a huge… void for me.’

South Korea exempts some elite athletes, such as Olympic medallists, and classical musicians from duty, but pop stars do not qualify.

However, BTS have already benefited from a 2020 revision to the conscription law that raised the enlistment deadline for some entertainers from age 28 to 30.

Jin, the oldest member of BTS, turned 30 on December 4.

The seismic changes for BTS in 2022 have sparked feverish speculation among fans and K-pop watchers about what the future holds for the group – will they retain their fame or struggle to revive that success?

Some male K-pop stars have struggled to resume their careers after military service in a cut-throat industry where artists are easily replaceable.

‘For the K-pop industry, the retreat of BTS will be a big deal,’ Lee Taek-gwang, a communications professor at Kyung Hee University, told AFP.

However, other experts have pointed to the massive success of BTS and said they will be an exception to that trend.

They ‘obtained another level of popularity, influence and credibility’, said Lee Ji-young, a BTS expert and professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Since their debut in 2013, BTS have been widely credited with doing more than any diplomat or other celebrity to boost the image and soft power of South Korea, today considered a global cultural powerhouse.

They have been invited to speak at the United Nations, and to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House. They are also official ambassadors to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan, South Korea.

BTS are pictured together in November 2021. Pictured is Jin, Suga, V, Jungkook, RM, Jimin, and J-Hope

The South Korean government has credited BTS with bringing billions of dollars into the economy.

But despite that success, a draft proposal to grant them service exemptions proved too controversial and never made it through parliament.

‘In South Korea, the military service is the indicator of egalitarianism… (where) all men are equal,’ Lee at Kyung Hee University told AFP, adding it was a ‘necessary’ symbol of citizenship.

Jin will reportedly join a ‘frontline unit’ stationed near the border.

‘It shows the role of culture, and public opinion, in shaping international affairs. Is this ‘frontline’ role a combat role, or is it about public relations and media?’ Sarah Keith, a senior lecturer in media and music at Macquarie University, told AFP.

On Monday, Jin posted a photo of himself with military-style cropped hair on the South Korean social media platform Weverse, with the caption: ‘It’s cuter than I expected.’

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