BIGBANG Seungri will be enlisting in the military sooner than expected; his agency confirmed his upcoming military enlistment following contrasting reports about what division and title he’ll serve under.

Two different news outlets reported two different statements regarding Seungri’s upcoming military enlistment. Maeil Business Star Today reported he has applied for conscripted policeman selection examination while Edaily reported he’d be enlisting as an active duty soldier.

Regarding the different reports, Seungri’s agency YG Entertainment stepped up to clarify the reports; turns out both reports had truth to them.

Seungri did indeed apply to become a conscripted policeman, however, he has decided to withdraw himself from that and enlist as an active duty soldier instead.

A representative from YG confirmed the idol would be enlisting on March 25. The statement released by the representative revealed Seungri had previously applied for the conscripted policeman selection examination at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on January 7.

Seungri chose to avoid misunderstandings and decided to withdraw himself from the selection even if he ended up passing the first round. He will enlist as an active duty soldier.

This makes Seungri the last BIGBANG member to enlist in the military, the other four members enlisted back in 2018 with the exception of T.O.P who enlisted in 2017.

The remaining four BIGBANG members will be discharged before 2019 ends with T.O.P being the first (check out the discharge dates here).

Seungri has been embroiled in controversy for a variety of reasons that started with his involvement in “Burning Sun” club which had been accused of numerous serious crimes. He was also involved in allegations for ordering sexual escort services to foreign business investors and underwent an investigation on February 27 as a result of the allegations. The investigation is still ongoing.

On the other hand, netizens are still largely unpleased by Seungri, many leaving comments such as ‘he’s running away,’ ‘he shouldn’t be allowed to enlist while the investigation is underway,’ ‘don’t let him run away,’ ‘don’t send a criminal to the army’ among many other similar comments.

How do you feel about this?

Source: (A)

My Personal Thoughts

This is not a defense to Seungri but logically speaking he was going to enlist in the first half of 2019 anyways.

Before these shocking reports were revealed, Seungri had said he plans on enlisting asap to catch up to his hyungs, a lot of people suspected he was leaving before summer of 2019. His schedule was initially supposed to wrap up in April so I expected him to enlist in April or May.

Since the controversies he’s been involved in, his concerts were canceled and he’ll leave earlier. You can say he’s running away but the reality is he was going to enlist either way.

As for the ongoing investigation, I don’t believe the police won’t be summoning him if he’s needed for further questioning, the military is not a shield y’all. Its not like the military doesn’t know how to deal with suspects who are undergoing investigations. Seungri is to police ‘a person of interest’ (so far) but if that status change, the military will deal with it appropriately.

T.O.P was summoned a couple of times for the marijuana case while he was still serving which is why he’ll be discharged so late.

With the magnitude of the issues surrounding Seungri I don’t believe it’s a matter that he can brush off by going to the army and I don’t believe you’ll stop hearing about him any time soon even after he enlists.

Instead of taking sides right now, I have chosen not to defend and not to bash. I will wait for the full final verdict in his case, although I personally doubt he’ll be able to recover from this.

Personally, I haven’t seen a Kpop idol this hated by the general Korean public ever. I have been a kpop fan since 2012. The issue with Seungri’s controversies is that it doesn’t include only him, his name is being attached to many suspicious happenings.

It’ll be very difficult to ever discard that image he has gotten with these controversies regardless if he’s proven guilty or innocent.

I know international VIPs will continue to support (reading their comments everywhere) but if the general Korean public doesn’t want to hear from him ever again, it’ll be difficult for him to promote in his own country peacefully or as well as he used to, at least this is what I believe, I could be wrong, it’ll take us two years to find out if what I say turns out to be true or not.

I have seen idols careers ruined because they were in love, now compare that to the controversies surroundings Seungri and you’ll get a grasp of why it might be difficult for him to recover the image he once had.

I hope the truth prevails and those who did wrong are punished regardless of their status!