USA army minimum salary vs. South Korea

[hl]

For those who don’t want to wait, it’s $355.41 USD

[potatoman]

When you're trying to get your 8-page essay to 10 pages before midnight

[sto]

North Koreans: wait y’all are gettin paid?

[abhaybohora]

I really hope Bts don’t light up the dynamite they’ve been talking about on the battlefield 💀

[armaholic]

Meanwhile in the Greek army: "You guys get paid too?"

[Icantdothisanymoreplskillme]

Imagine you get drafted into the army and you see bts standing there 💀💀💀

[sebonteesen]

BTS never "asked" nor "wanted" to get military exempt. It was the Korean government who introduced the BTS LAW as an honour, where the members could postpone their service until the age of 30 cause of their contribution to Korea's GDP. But as we already know the oldest member, JIN, who is 30 years old terminated the postponement and began serving, as of today 3 members are currently serving in the ARMY, because of this BTS LAW from now on any kpop idols who contributes to koreas gdp or in general can postpone their military service until 30.

[luv.]

The way she brought up BTS and exemption in the same sentence was so low, BTS never ever tried to be exempt.

[onemilkyway]

Bts go distract the enemy with your dancing and song.
Bts: yes Sir.

[otakugisa]

“Guess how much it is in South Korea?”

“Find out right after this break.”

[freaknutt]

BTS has never asked for military exemption and have always stated that they will proudly serve their country when it is time to do so.

[DennisTheInternationalMenace]

I heard BTS didn't try to get exempt. If not mistaking, Fans said they should and they said they had no problem doing the service. They're doing it right now.

[katomiccomics]

Imagine being on the battlefield and hearing “Smooth like butter...”

[nobodyinparticular]

“Be ready to lay down your life in war”
“What do I get?”
“Uh here’s $300”

[wendydubbelyou]

I would be careful of saying BTS tried to get exemption, as they never did. They do delay service. But the possibility of exemption was put on them by other music labels and certain ministers. BTS themselves never wanted exemption.

[Kahsimiah]

That's during the mandatory service. Some other countries have or had that, too.
When I did my service in the german Bundeswehr, I got around 460€ a month.
And that's fair. You get to experience a whole new world, it's a lot of fun when there's no war, you meet people from all over the country... It was a really nice time. A friend of mine even learned how to parachute from airplanes and did some 60 jumps.

[shrutigupta]

so glad BTS took the decision to enlist on their own as a slap to SK’s government and media who for yearsss have been using them for their own benefit. served the government officials damn right.

edit : y'all talking about the govt NOT using them need to know the fact that the govt wanted them to enlist all while they would be allowed to perform at times just so they could bring in the billions of won they do EACH YEAR. the govt didn't even want them to enlist with freedom that, might i add, every man gets in South Korea gets, which is absurd to me. im glad BTS didn't let them do that to them and just took the years off. and as a matter of fact, SK IS set to lose trillions by 2025 because of BTS’ absence.

edit 2 (source) : “a report released by the Hyundai Economic Research Institute, which states that BTS contributed an estimated ₩5.10 trillion KRW (about $3.55 billion USD) to the Korean Economy every year. The same report mentioned that in 2017, one in every thirteen tourists visited Korea because of BTS. In addition, there were earnings of ₩1.58 trillion KRW (about $1.10 billion USD) from exports and consumer goods, such as commodities and cosmetics. Fortune Magazine claims that with BTS’s enlistment, Korea loses the opportunity to earn the estimated ₩5.00 trillion KRW (about $3.48 billion USD) per year while BTS is gone.”

[ArmagettinYa]

She's like the friend who tells a whole story to get to the point they're making 😂

[Jess]

For the people in the comments, I would like to clear up what was said about BTS in the video because it could be misleading. This includes some background knowledge:

South Korean able-bodied men ages 18-28 have to enlist in the military. In 2018 BTS went #1 on the US Billboard 200 album chart and were in the top 10 of the Hot 100, an unprecedented first for a Korean artist. For their global impact, they were awarded a the Order of Cultural Merit award in 2018, which is one of the highest honors in their country (they’re the only K-pop group to ever receive the award). Since 2018 the SK gov’t has been questioning whether to allow them exemption from military service because of how much they solely bring into the economy, which was billions of dollars (USD). This debate had gone on at the government level for years, while BTS has asserted several times that they would proudly serve “when called”, meaning when they would get their official order by the military to enlist.

The conversation about their enlistment became an even hotter debate when they became the first Korean act to go #1 on the Hot 100 in 2020. In 2021, without their influence, the SK government passed a law that would allow those who received the cultural merit award to postpone enlistment, which only BTS qualified for. It was dubbed “the BTS Law”. It was also likely because they had gone #1 on the Hot 100 four more times at this point, were raking in even more money for the SK economy, and their oldest member would have turned the latest age to enlist.

The government, without BTS’ influence, was still debating whether to exempt them regardless of their decision on the BTS Law well into late 2022, especially after in June 2022 BTS announced during their anniversary dinner that they would be pausing their group activities other than the ones they committed to later in the year. The exemption debate was at its height after they made that announcement because they didn’t want to lose out on BTS’ massive global financial influence. The military was also trying to come up with a plan where BTS would be able to serve in the military but also be able to perform while serving, which would only benefit the military since they would be under their management and control.

In Oct 2022, BTS announced their intention to cancel any postponement benefits they legally received for their cultural merit award (which only the eldest member benefited from) and said they would enlist on their terms like every other normal private male citizen, as they had always intended. This put an end to the exemption talks they never participated in. They also revealed that they were actually going to begin their enlistments in 2020 (and even had discussions as a group to go as early as 2018) but Covid and going #1 on the Hot 100 diverted their original plans. Two members are currently enlisted. Jin, the eldest, went in Dec 2022 and J-hope (born in 94, and third oldest) went in May 2023. The rest will be enlisting as soon as they wrap up their individual activities so they can reconvene as a group by 2025.

BTS has never once asked for postponement— it was awarded to them through a law that they had no part in creating. BTS has never fought to be exempted from serving as they considered it their duty to serve their country. The optics alone of asking for special treatment would have destroyed their careers, but it was never a question to them if they would serve.

There have been other South Korean entertainers and their companies that have attempted to dodge enlistment or postpone it by trying to use their influence, and that’s where that Psy reference actually comes into play. You can read up on him and his enlistment controversy for yourselves, or even take a crack at the recent enlistment controversies from this year that has an K-pop idol facing prison time.

[saintm]

Quick correction: BTS did not try to exempt themselves from serving - they’re proud to serve their country .