Request to grant the official EXEMPTION status on K-Pop Artists' Military Enlistment
분야: 외교/통일/국방
청원 기간: 2018-06-21 ~ 2018-07-21

Dear Mr. President, This is to request the REVISION of the existing military enlistment law, which is very outdated (decades-old) and severely discriminates against Korean Pop Artists, in particular. Exercising this law therefore has been incomprehensible by the modern day, democratic, fair principle. The current enlistment law PROTECTS the elite male professionals (athletes, classical musicians or dancers, academic scholars) by granting them the privileged, life-time EXEMPTION STATUS, when their achievement merits are proven: athlete or classical artist, who won the silver medal or above at least once in the world-class, international competition. In stark contrast, male POP ARTISTS (pop musicians, actors, dancers, etc.)’ career accomplishments have been unfairly underrated all along, hence they are completely prohibited from receiving the enlistment exemption from the Korean government; namely, NO CONSIDERATION or any type of career protection is granted, even when they score the world top-class merits by winning through internationally acclaimed competition, professional reviews, or award rankings. In reality, these pop stars (K-pop musicians or K-actors) make much bigger global contributions infusing Korean culture into, beyond what Olympic athletes or classical artists could accomplish till today. Further, K-pop artists contribute multi billion $-financial impact per year directly to Korean economy with what they earn abroad; BTS is one standing example on such. While more and more acclaimed K-pop artists are on the rise in the international community, still yet these male artists’ career curves face spiral downhill or even permanent damages as they need to be encamped serving near 2 year-long military duties while in their 20’s of young ages. As the entertainment industry is brutally competitive in nature, it is also not uncommon that the mandatory enlistment striking very often at their peak of career activities take off the artists’ toll to the most damaging way, where their loss of popularity then become impossible to be restored even thereafter completing military duties. It is, hence, critically compelling to PROTECT these elite pop artists’ successful work as URGENTLY as possible, so that their hard-earned, career success will not be interrupted or irreversibly affected by their imminent military enlistment: officially granting the full EXEMPTION status, similarly as this law currently protects other athletes/classical artists/scholars’ career flow. In essence, this petition requests FAIR and INDISCRIMINATORY practice of the enlistment law onto the elite-class K-pop artists that the this world can comprehend; the global community is already over-flooded with the concern presented here, why Korean government still cold-heartedly hand out, so called the career death sentences exclusively to K-pop male artists, which are intrinsically embedded in their enlistment notices. Therefore, the public voices and strength supporting this issue cannot be more compelling now than ever before.