Why do you all act so surprised?

I mean I've seen people who are not armys that were surprised by the news..

They are familiar with BTS but not with how the korean military conscription works.

im confused who the "you all" in the title is targeted at because, no, "we" are not surprised. but there are obviously people who do not care about korea nearly as much as kpop stans. people that do not understand the mandatory military service there, or its purpose. who do not understand the social politics that make even celebrities of bts' caliber unable to dream of receiving a shortened service without public scrutiny. i don't really get the tone of the op if you're specifically referring to the type of people that have no idea what is going on in korea. bts' impact on the sk economy is very measurable so yeah it could be very shocking that sk as a whole would see it better to not upset the status quo and just simply lose out on what bts could have continued to contribute for 2+ years.

lbr, bts themselves are not going to single handedly end a war if sk does go to war. 7 men will contribute little to the numbers or the manpower. at the end of the day this is a convo of merit. its a convo of "why should they get exempt just bc they make a little money". its a convo of precedent. and that can be hard to understand for people in the western world.

I saw a Spanish dude saying that they were joining the Army as a propaganda strategy to make more men in Korea join Some of us had to explain that all men in Korea have the obligation to serve in the military.