Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min secured the exemption after his Korean team won gold at the last Games in Jakarta in 2018.
K-pop star Suga, songwriter and rapper for the boy band supergroup BTS, began the enlistment process for mandatory military service last month, making him the third BTS member to go off to perform the military duty.
The military service law was amended several years ago to allow selected K-pop megastars to defer their service to aged 30, but not to avoid it entirely, with a large section of the population against giving stars like BTS special treatment.
"We have players (in the current squad) who have been exempt from military service by winning gold medals in past editions of the games, but... we also several players who have not yet avoided military service.
"But of course, because a gold medal gives one an exemption, and we have many who haven't done their service yet... we should perform at our best and get the gold."
Persons:
Lee, Kelley L Cox, Son Heung, Kwon, Suga, Faker, Lee Sang, Baek, chul, Kim Woomin, I’m, ” Kim, Choo Il Seung, I'm, Heo Hoon, Martin Quin Pollard, Eduardo Baptista, Ian Ransom, Toby Davis
Organizations:
DRX, League of, Chase Center, USA, Rights, South, Hangzhou Asian Games, North, Asian Games, Tottenham Hotspur, Korean, BTS, League, China, Qatar, Thomson
Locations:
San Francisco , California, USA, Rights HANGZHOU, China, North Korea, South, Jakarta, Korea, Hangzhou, Qatar, Beijing