RM
enlisted for the mandatory military service on December 11, along with V. The duo was spotted at the Nonsan
Army
Training Center in Chungnam on the day of enlistment.
Ahead of the same, RM had penned an emotional note to fans, speaking about his training of 18 months. The letter roughly translated as, “These 18 months can be long or short, but I trust that it will be a time when we can all gain foreign but new inspiration and learning.
Although it may be scary and daunting, is there anything more comforting than the fact that during this uncertain time, there will be something to expect and look forward to? It might be my duty, but I think that it is also everyone’s love.”
Interestingly, a lot of fans reached out to Anton Hur, the writer and translator who worked on the English version of BTS’s memoir, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record Of
BTS
, for a more authentic translation of the emotional note. Revealing the reason to not translate it, Anton posted on X (formerly Twitter), “I'm not ignoring the (very respectful 💜) requests to translate
Namjoon
's letter—I just feel incredibly ambivalent about military conscription in general because of my own experiences in serving in the Korean army and my own political very non-mainstream beliefs.”
English (US) ·