BTS Jin shares his thoughts on issue surrounding his military enlistment

BTS Jin shared his honest feelings about the BTS military issue during a live broadcast celebrating the release of his solo single “The Astronaut,” on Saturday.

“We got a lot of hate for this issue in Korea, and we do feel that, to some extent, [the rhetoric] was unfair to us,” Jin said through the fan community platform Weverse, “but I am glad that the fans didn’t have to see the [Busan] concert with tears.”

Two days prior to HYBE’s announcement that BTS will be completing their military duties, the band held a concert in Busan titled “BTS: Yet to Come in Busan” on Oct. 15, in support of the port city’s bid to host the World Expo 2030.

“I didn’t want to tell fans that this [Busan concert] was the last time that we will be seeing each other and for the fans to be sad during the concert,” he said.

For the latest broadcast, Jin was tuning in from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he gave a live performance of “The Astronaut” as a guest at British band Coldplay’s concert at the Estadio River Plate.

“The Astronaut,” which was released on Friday, is co-written by Jin and Coldplay.

“After the performance in Argentina, I will return to Korea and fill out the necessary forms regarding [my enlistment to] the military,” he said.

According to Jin, he had been gearing up to enlist since 2020, after BTS released its album “BE” in November of that year.

However, plans deviated when the pandemic hit, and the band’s song “Dynamite” saw huge success, topping Billboard’s “Hot 100” single chart.

“‘Dynamite’ did better than any of us expected, so after contemplation, we decided to release another song that our fans would like, which resulted in the releases of ‘Butter’ [2021] and ‘Permission To Dance’ [2021],” said Jin. “Those two songs did well also, and at the time, I think that holding back from going to the military was the right thing.”

He said that his plan to enter the military was further postponed as the band became scheduled to perform in “Permission to Dance on Stage,” which had taken place in Korea and the United States from October 2021 to April of this year.

After concluding the tour, the band received an invitation to perform at the Grammy Awards in April.

“I had decided that after the Grammys, I would go to the military sometime between May and June,” he said. “I don’t fare well in cold weather and wanted to go [to the army] in the summer. I had gotten the O.K. sign from my agency as well.”

He also added that the band’s message in June regarding its temporary hiatus was an indirect way of telling the fans that he would be going to the army. On June 14, BTS members said that they will be pursuing solo ventures while putting a pause on group activities, in a YouTube clip on the band’s official channel.

Though Jin had been ready to enter the military in the summer, he said that he was convinced by his fellow bandmates to perform at the 2030 Busan concert before going to the military.

“I had to decide — will I go to the army in winter so as to not disappoint my fans, or will I not perform and go when the weather was still warm?” he said. “In the end, I decided that I needed to respect the fans and told my agency that I would perform [in Busan] and then go to the military.”

Jin’s “The Astronaut” is the artist’s last music before he enlists for his mandatory military service.

His single sold some 700,954 copies when sales first opened on Friday, according to Hanteo Chart.

The song topped iTunes’ Top Song Chart of 97 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.

The music video for “The Astronaut” reached No. 1 in YouTube’s fastest most-viewed videos chart in countries such as Korea, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil.

As of 10:30 a.m.(KST) Sunday, the clip has some 23 million views.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]