230808 Channel News Asia: South Korea scout jamboree SOS issued to BTS megastars

I haven’t read up on what this jamboree is about, but it’s ridiculous how much entitlement some people feel. Lol so if it’s convenient for them, just summon BTS to save face?

BTS are not a magic Joker card they can whip out at their whim, what a mess.

Tl;dr : The South Korean government found themselves in a quandary due to the poor organisation of the World Scout Jamboree (involving over 40,000 scouts) and the resulting mess and one rep of the ruling party* has made a public call for BTS to come to the rescue by performing at the kpop concert on Aug 11. The concert has already seen many changes, with the date recently postponed from Aug 6 to Aug 11 (so some performers had to drop out due to schedule clashes), and the venue changed twice! (More on the event debacle [here](https://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230806000213&ACE_SEARCHhttps://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230806000213&ACE_SEARCH=1) and several more on the Korea Herald website.

I actually had a good impression of the politician cos he strongly championed for BTS to be exempted from enlistment as the head of the National Defense Committee in their Parliament. But he seems to think they owe him something even though he failed spectacularly on that attempt.

Have seen mention of this news all day but finally found a reputable news source..while this is a Singapore new source, they credited wire news agency AFP as one of the sources (I.e. expect this to blow up internally. I have seen a similar article in a French newspaper)

Reposting my comment from another sub:

I’d rather that they let the BTS members go through their enlistment era in peace.

Let’s not forget that when discussing “national prestige” in the past few years, the South Korean government deemed that these able-bodied men are better off serving their country from the barracks for 2 years instead of being on stage. So yeah, thanks for the offer and recognition, but no thanks.

There are many popular groups available, they should do it. But geesh, I hope whoever gets chosen to perform is well taken cared of, too.

Besides, the performance they are requesting is in 3 days! Are they crazy??! The logistics of that is unimaginable. It’s bad enough that they are struggling with the logistics of the jamboree itself, then they also want to throw a BTS performance in the mix?? Haha!

Maybe an appearance is more feasible, but even then I hope the members and Big Hit are able to decline without repercussions.

Some people (or in this case, governments) don’t understand how to lie in the bed that they made.

BTS is not your catch all solution when you’ve reached the “find out” conclusion of your “fuck around” scenario.

The should ask the athletes and classical musicians they exempted to perform instead 🙏

better yet, ask the million sellers everyone swears are bigger than BTS now

Lmao let’s just pop BTS out of the military real quick and give them 2 days to prepare a concert!

Honestly scary that they might be forced to do this though 😐

i thought the organisation for the busan world expo was bad, but this takes the cake. i would LOVE to send a compilation of all the middle fingers yoongi shot up during the tour to the organisers.

what a shitshow of incompetency and entitlement to have the audacity to think they can just call on BTS as and when they want to “save” them and their “national prestige”.

i really really hope BTS don’t get pressured into agreeing to this, especially 2seok since they’re in the military and there seems to be a conversation between ministries to assist in this. the kind of concerts BTS puts on take MONTHS of organisation and rehearsals, i can’t even comprehend what goes through the organisers & government’s brains that they think everything can be pulled together within the next 2-3 days???

Back in 2018, when BTS performed in France for the Korea/France ‘friendship’ summit, it was amazing as it was seen as BTS deserving of meeting the President and being the “face” of Korea. It was a natural step up to their growing national and global presence.

But it also came out that that performance wasn’t decided as cleanly. A government representative flew to NYC to personally ask BTS to perform…in the middle of their LY tour and the logistics and costs were to be covered by BTS and Big Hit themselves. But BTS agreed and performed very well. They were awarded the Cultural Merit Award for their services to Korea.

There have been several instances with BTS and Moon Jae-In’s administration where BTS have been presented as being “part of the government”, remember they have diplomatic passports.

And let’s not forget the ridiculous behavior of the politicians during the Busan ExPo discussions.

All this is to say the government, no matter which administration, has had a history of asking BTS to drop whatever they’re doing and perform because it is “national prestige”. Knowing how proud BTS are as Koreans and their kindness and graciousness, they agreed.

The Korean government and media have never respected BTS. They are forced to acknowledge them because BTS are too big to ignore. But they also don’t hesitate to take advantage of them whenever an opportunity arises. They look down on BTS but have the gall to ask them for help when they need saving.

I hope HYBE stays firm and absolutely refuses to send BTS to this event. BTS have done enough for Korea. They shouldn’t be demanded to fix issues that have nothing to do with them. Remember when Yoongi said in his documentary, when a man hugged him for giving Koreans representation, he said “I never asked to be Korea’s representative” these instances put a lot of pressure on BTS and while ordinary citizens who genuinely appreciate them are a good thing, it is disgusting of politicians to keep doing this to BTS.


I want BTS to come and clear up my messes.

You made them go to the military despite their massive impact on South Korean culture, economy, diplomacy and soft power, while letting barely-known athletes who haven’t even won any important tournaments, and unknown classical musicians have exemptions. Stick by your own actions and let them complete their service in peace, at least. Call the athletes, classical musicians and next BTS-es to save your ass instead.

BTS shouldn’t do this, but maybe Suga and El Capitan should — to perform the remix!