Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but for conscripted stars, reminders don’t hurt

For most K-pop stars, mandatory military service brings careers to a screeching halt, at least temporarily.

Park Ji-hoon, however, isn’t dreading the pause in the slightest, even as he begins to reach new heights.

The idol-turned-actor is enjoying some of the busiest days of his career, coming off the back-to-back success of the film “The King’s Warden” and the recently wrapped comedy series “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier.” But conscription is fast approaching.

Like all able-bodied Korean men, Park must eventually serve. Rather than push the deadline as far back as possible, however, the 27-year-old says he will enlist voluntarily, even though he could delay his service until 2027, with hopes of joining the Marine Corps, which has a lower maximum age for recruits.

“I’m not really afraid of the military hiatus,” Park told reporters during an interview on June 2.

These days, he said, actors and idols often prepare for the absence by filming projects in advance.

“When those projects air while they’re serving, people sometimes get the feeling of, ‘Wait, he’s already back?’” he said with a smile.

Park has yet to settle on detailed plans, but that, he said, would be the ideal scenario.

His ease reflects a broader shift across Korea’s entertainment industry.

For male entertainers in Korea — especially K-pop idols — mandatory military service has long been one of the industry’s most dreaded disruptions, both for stars and their fans. A hiatus once meant a near-total absence — no performances, no fan meetings and no steady stream of content, as soldiers are barred from profit-making activities while in service.

But the landscape has changed. Military service no longer necessarily means disappearing from public view. Instead, it has produced a new kind of hiatus — one carefully filled with prerecorded songs, filmed content, social media posts, documentaries and behind-the-scenes footage, all planned like part of a promotional schedule. The result is a pause that feels less absolute, helping stars stay present in the minds of fans until they return.

Boy band Seventeen’s Hoshi enlisted in the Army on Sept. 16 last year, three months after turning 29. Yet on June 15 of this year, while still serving, the idol-turned-soldier released a new single, “Snap Back,” a self-written pop track, marking his 30th birthday.

According to behind-the-scenes footage released later, Hoshi recorded the song on June 12 of last year, almost exactly a year before its release, as part of a broader stockpile of content prepared for his hiatus, which is scheduled to last until March 15 of next year.

Korea’s Framework Act on Military Status and Service bars soldiers from engaging in any work for profit other than military duties, but when albums, dramas, variety show appearances, social media posts and behind-the-scenes footage are planned, contracted, recorded or filmed before enlistment, agencies can release them later, even while the artists themselves are physically serving on military bases.

That distinction has become increasingly important as more stars remain visible during service.

In March, Fantagio, the agency of idol-turned-actor Cha Eun-woo, had to clarify that a photo exhibition in Japan scheduled during his military service did not violate the rules. The agency said the exhibition had been contracted in August 2024, before Cha’s enlistment in July of last year, and that it had confirmed the matter with the Ministry of National Defense in advance. Cha himself would not attend the event, the agency said.

While the Korean public now relatively readily accepts the release of content during stars’ conscription, the boundary was less settled a few years earlier.

EXO’s Baekhyun, who served as a social agent from May 2021 to February 2023, prepared enough YouTube content to be released monthly during his service. But after criticism that the videos could be viewed as profit-making activity, SM Entertainment deleted the videos uploaded after his enlistment and halted further uploads until his discharge in November 2021, even as it said the videos had been filmed before his service and were not monetized.

By the time BTS started its military hiatus, however, the approach had become more systematic.

The septet began its hiatus with Jin’s enlistment in December 2022, followed by the other members over the next year. Yet their absence was buffered by solo albums, documentaries, fan events and other prearranged content released throughout the period.

In a conference call in November 2023, about a year after BTS’s military hiatus began, HYBE Chief Financial Officer Lee Kyung-jun pushed back against concerns that the group’s absence would sharply hurt revenue.

“We do not expect revenue to fall very significantly because of BTS’s military hiatus,” Lee said, adding that the company had “already prepared a great deal of prerecorded content to prepare for the gap.”

For fans, the effect was tangible.

“Honestly, it went by pretty fast,” said a BTS fan from New York going by AnJolie when asked how she fared during the hiatus. She said she went to Suga and J-Hope’s solo concerts while full-group activities were on pause.

“And they did come out with a lot of stuff — a lot of music and more — so I was enjoying that while they were gone,” she said.

Pop culture critic Ha Jae-geun said third-generation bands such as BTS and Seventeen have been able to soften the sense of absence through prerecorded content, solo projects and stronger fan platforms.

“Because agencies are releasing content and albums that were prepared in advance while the artists are serving, fans are definitely less worried or lonely than they used to be,” said Kim Jung-won, an ethnomusicologist who specializes in fandom culture and teaches classes on K-pop culture at Yonsei University. “And even after celebrities enlist, there are now more chances for fans to see them through military promotional content, musicals produced by the military or military events, which also helps.”

BY SHIN HA-NEE  [[email protected]]