'Even BTS went': Asian Games reignites debate over military service exemption for gold

NAGOYA, Japan — South Korea's fifth straight Asian Games baseball gold has spared 16 players from mandatory military service, but it has also revived questions over whether the decades-old exemption still fits the country.

South Korea beat Japan 3-1 in the final of the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Sunday at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Sixteen of the 24 players on the roster who had yet to complete their mandatory service are now exempt.

As the players celebrated, an old and fiercely contested debate reared its head again.

Japan fielded a team of amateur industrial-league players who hold jobs alongside their baseball careers, not professionals, yet South Korea only narrowly got past them in the final. Two days earlier, South Korea had lost to the same team 5-0 in the Super Round.

"Honestly, I don't pay attention to it," captain Roh Si-hwan said of the criticism of the team's performance. "We won anyway, and I don't think the process matters."

But fans outside sports question whether the reward itself is fair.

"Even BTS went to the military, so is it really fair to give an exemption for winning an Asian Games gold medal?" one person asked.

The military exemption system for athletes and artists began 53 years ago as part of a state-led push to develop elite athletes, offering them a chance at an uninterrupted career. It was introduced the year after South Korea fell behind North Korea in the medal race at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Its basic framework has not changed in the half-century since. Under the current rules, revised in 1990, male athletes who win an Olympic bronze medal or better or an Asian Games gold are spared 18 months of military service. Instead, they complete three weeks of basic military training and 544 hours of sports-related volunteer work.

The system has helped drive rapid growth in South Korean sports. And for athletes, who have short careers relative to other professions, the exemption remains a powerful incentive.

From baseball players such as former pitcher Park Chan-ho and former outfielder Choo Shin-soo to footballers including midfielder Park Ji-sung and forward Son Heung-min, the exemption was a stepping stone to becoming world-class players. At this year's Games, infielder Kim Do-yeong and basketball forward Lee Hyun-jung earned exemptions that could help them move to major global leagues.

Critics argue that rewarding an Asian Games gold no longer is befitting of a country whose international standing now approaches that of the Group of 7 economies. An Olympic bronze is still hard to win, but the Asian Games have expanded to many more events, and many countries send second-tier squads. South Korea won just 16 gold medals at the 1974 Tehran Asian Games but 96 at the 2002 Busan Games.

The system also raises fairness questions between sports. A football player who wins the World Cup, for instance, would receive no exemption.

The Asian Games have come to be seen less as a battlefield where athletes fight for national honor than as an escape hatch from military service. Jokes that sit uneasily with sportsmanship have spread: A "legal military service broker" is a player who helps teammates win an exemption, and "military-roids" describes a player who delivers a dominant performance just before enlistment.

Some recipients have also drawn criticism. Football defender Jang Hyun-soo, who received an exemption, caused a stir among the public by falsifying records of his volunteer work. Park Jae-hyuk, a professional gamer known as Ruler who won an exemption with an esports gold, faced tax evasion allegations earlier this year.

The sports community counters that scrapping the exemption would shake the foundations of elite sports.

In 2013, the Military Manpower Administration pushed for a point system that would have granted exemptions based on cumulative results from international competitions, but it was scrapped after fierce opposition from the sports world. The government, wary of the political burden, has repeatedly put off reform.

"Unlike in the past, there are now many ways to raise the nation's profile," Kim Jeong-hyo, a sports philosopher and professor at Seoul National University, said. "K-culture, which has spread around the world, outshines an Asian Games gold medal. In a country that competes for No. 1 in the world in semiconductors, defense and culture, a system that exempts people from a sacred national duty on the grounds of being No. 1 in Asia needs to be revised to fit the times and the public's expectations."

Alternatives under discussion include sending amateur players to the Asian Games as Japan does, switching to a cumulative point system or allowing athletes to defer enlistment until their mid-30s.

BY KIM HYO-KYOUNG, PARK LIN [[email protected]]