BTS’s Official Translator Declines Requests To Translate RM’s Letter, Sparking Serious Debate About Conscription

On December 11, BTS‘s leader RM enlisted in the military with his fellow member V for their mandatory service.

RM (left) and V (right) | @BTS/YouTube

Before leaving, RM wrote a long, heartfelt letter to ARMYs and posted it on Weverse. In the letter, he talked about his happy memories with fans as a BTS member and honestly touched upon his fear of the coming 18 months.

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.

— RM

The letter touched hearts, while many fan translators noted how nuanced the original Korean version was, making it almost impossible to translate it accurately into English. Some fans requested 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 translation.

Anton Hur | Words Without Borders

However, Hur voiced his reluctance to translate the letter in a detailed thread on X (formerly Twitter), implying that it doesn’t align with his viewpoint on conscription in general, which is “incredibly ambivalent” based on his real-life experiences.

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.

— Anton Hur (@AntonHur) December 12, 2023

He then offered a painful recollection of his time in service, during which he was severely injured. A construction accident led to two of his vertebrae and all his heel bones being completely destroyed, and according to his doctor, it was a miracle that he survived without suffering more severe physical repercussions.

My doctors say it is a miracle I 1) did not die, 2) did not become paraplegic, and 3) can walk at all. You can say I am in a very particular position to have an opinion on the matter of conscription. My opinion is, it is romanticized too much, in service of someone else's empire.

— Anton Hur (@AntonHur) December 12, 2023

Hur then criticized South Korean politicians for not respecting Korean artists and recognizing the country’s real “soft power,” i.e., BTS, and their refusal to exempt the members.

But Korean politicians care more about their d*cks feeling bigger because some other Korean man kicked a ball into a net instead of actual "soft power" or the reputation of Korean artistry internationally. Or, I dunno, more than negotiating a peace treaty with North Korea.

— Anton Hur (@AntonHur) December 12, 2023

He also criticized the government for its constant failure to put an end to the war between the North and the South, which entered its 70^th year of ceasefire in 2023. As a result, Hur said, the country’s youth have to pay the price.

It is shameful that it is the 70th year of the ceasefire and we still have not declared an end to the Korean War. (I mostly blame America for this, but that’s a whole new thread.) And it’s our youth that still pay for it, whose parents were not even alive in 1950–3.

— Anton Hur (@AntonHur) December 12, 2023

He ended the thread by saying he felt too “ashamed and angry at this state of division to translate the letter.”

I am too ashamed and angry at this state of division to translate the letter. We have failed and continue to fail the younger generations for not ending this war. It feels wrong for me to then translate a brave young man’s letter of giving comfort to his friends. I am sorry.

— Anton Hur (@AntonHur) December 12, 2023

The hurt and pain in Anton Hur’s words resonated with many, including Jinwoo Park, a Korean-Canadian writer. He posted his response to the thread on TikTok, adding his two cents as well.

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“I think the conscription system is a load of crap…Everybody thinks on some level that the conscription system is outdated,” Park says in the video, adding that everyone he knows has tried to get out of the mandatory service in one way or another.

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He specifically criticized that BTS were not exempted from their services when rich and influential people could easily find their way out of it.

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Unlike Hur, Park admitted he had no military service experience because he attained Canadian citizenship early in life. But that decision was made by his father, a veteran soldier with a strong patriotic sense of duty toward his country. Park said that even though his father would rush to help if South Korea ever goes to war again, he also recognizes how harmful mandatory military service is.

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In Park’s opinion, the conscription system is detrimental to Korean society as it hinders young men’s educational and career prospects. In his view, it is an exploitative system that imposes forced labor on the youth, even when South Korea has all the resources to have a full-standing army with well-paid soldiers who signed up for the job voluntarily.

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While Park acknowledged that there is a need for the country to have armed defense forces, he also called the conscription system a “vestige of the old times,” highlighting how the situation has changed since the Korean War, causing the North to lose its edge over the South, and essentially eliminating the root cause behind the necessity of conscription.

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In the end, Park acknowledged Hur’s position on the conscription debate, emphasizing the need for a re-evaluation in the context of South Korea’s current sociopolitical setting.

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Though RM’s letter was the catalyst behind this critical discourse about conscription, the idol himself has never expressed any critiquing opinions on it. After his enlistment, some fans rediscovered a poem he had written about the political climate of the two Koreas as a fifth grader, where he expressed his hopes for a peaceful future. You can read about it here.