World

BTS star Jin started his mandatory South Korean military duty on Tuesday, the band’s first member to enlist since a hiatus announcement this year left fans heartbroken over the K-pop juggernaut’s uncertain future.

The septet is widely considered the country’s biggest-ever cultural phenomenon, selling out stadiums around the world and dominating the charts while raking in billions and building a global legion of fans known as ARMYs.

But all able-bodied men in South Korea must serve at least 18 months in the military and, while there was a years-long debate about whether BTS deserved an exemption, they confirmed in October that all members will enlist.

Jin — whose full name is Kim Seok-jin — reported to a frontline boot camp in Yeoncheon on Tuesday to begin his five-week training, kickstarting 18 months of military service.

He was riding one of the black vans that arrived in a row around 20 minutes before a 2:00 pm (0500 GMT) deadline, according to BTS’s agency HYBE.

Hundreds of media personnel and BTS fans packed an intersection in front of the boot camp’s main gate, where a sign reads “A cradle for top class combat soldiers”.

“We have mixed feelings today because on one hand, it’s normal that he does this enlistment because it’s an obligation anyway for any Korean men,” said Veronique, a 32-year-old fan from Indonesia.

“But on the other hand we cannot see him for a minimum of 18 months … Happy but also sad but also proud,” she said.

The location of Jin’s boot camp close to the border with North Korea, with which the South remains technically at war, has sparked local media speculation that he is expected to be deployed to a “frontline unit” after training.

– Fans stunned –

Fans were stunned in June when BTS revealed they were going on hiatus, citing exhaustion and pressure as well as the desire to pursue solo careers.

But analysts said the announcement was timed because of the compulsory military duty.

The group will reunite around 2025, when its seven members have completed their service.

“For a while, it’s true that there were many fans who would spend days just crying,” a South Korean fan, who runs the Twitter account @5heterotopia, told AFP.

Nimah Mustafa, a 20-year-old fan in Dubai, added: “(Jin’s absence) will be like a huge… void for me.”

South Korea exempts some elite athletes, such as Olympic medallists, and classical musicians from duty, but pop stars do not qualify.

However, BTS have already benefited from a 2020 revision to the conscription law that raised the enlistment deadline for some entertainers from age 28 to 30.

Jin, the oldest member of BTS, turned 30 on December 4.

– ‘They won’t be forgotten’ –

The seismic changes for BTS in 2022 have sparked feverish speculation among fans and K-pop watchers about what the future holds for the group — will they retain their fame or struggle to revive that success?

Some male K-pop stars have struggled to resume their careers after military service in a cut-throat industry where artists are easily replaceable.

“For the K-pop industry, the retreat of BTS will be a big deal,” Lee Taek-gwang, a communications professor at Kyung Hee University, told AFP.

However, other experts have pointed to the massive success of BTS and said they will be an exception to that trend.

They “obtained another level of popularity, influence and credibility”, said Lee Ji-young, a BTS expert and professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Since their debut in 2013, BTS have been widely credited with doing more than any diplomat or other celebrity to boost the image and soft power of South Korea, today considered a global cultural powerhouse.

They have been invited to speak at the United Nations, and to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House. They are also official ambassadors to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan, South Korea.

The South Korean government has credited BTS with bringing billions of dollars into the economy.

BTS “changed a lot of perceptions of ‘what is’ a pop star today,” Jeff Benjamin, Billboard’s K-pop columnist, told AFP.

– ‘Frontline’ deployment? –

But despite that success, a draft proposal to grant them service exemptions proved too controversial and never made it through parliament.

“In South Korea, the military service is the indicator of egalitarianism… (where) all men are equal,” Lee at Kyung Hee University told AFP, adding it was a “necessary” symbol of citizenship.

Jin will reportedly join a “frontline unit” stationed near the border.

“It shows the role of culture, and public opinion, in shaping international affairs. Is this ‘frontline’ role a combat role, or is it about public relations and media?” Sarah Keith, a senior lecturer in media and music at Macquarie University, told AFP.

On Monday, Jin posted a photo of himself with military-style cropped hair on the South Korean social media platform Weverse, with the caption: “It’s cuter than I expected.”

Five more protesters died in Peru on Monday as violent demonstrations over the ousting of the former president showed no sign of calming, despite his successor’s efforts to quell the unrest.

Seven people, including three teenagers, have now died in escalating protests since the leftist Pedro Castillo was accused of an attempted coup, impeached and arrested last week.

New President Dina Boluarte tried to ease tensions on Sunday, announcing she would seek to hold elections two years early and declaring a state of emergency in flashpoint areas.

But that had little effect as protesters continued to demand her resignation, blocking roads in several cities around the country with logs, rocks and burning tires.

Some 2,000 protesters smashed runway lighting, burned security booths and forced the closure of the airport in Peru’s second-largest city Arequipa for several hours on Monday before police dispersed them with tear gas.

Around 100 Castillo supporters were camped out in front of the police facility in Lima where he is being held, demanding he be released and returned to office.

“We have been sleeping here for four nights and we will continue until we get the president back to the (presidential) palace,” protester Ana Karina Ramos told AFP, with tears in her eyes.

Also Monday in Apurimac, demonstrators torched the public prosecutor’s office and a police station.

In Arequipa, protesters occupied one of the largest factories in the country, owned by the dairy company Gloria.

Train services between Cusco and Machu Picchu, Peru’s best known tourist site, will be suspended from Tuesday to ensure passenger safety ahead of a national strike called for by Castillo supporters, the rail operator said.

Cusco’s international airport was also closed after protesters attempted to “violently enter” it on Monday, aviation authorities said.

Seven people have been killed since Sunday, a source from the public defender’s office told AFP on condition of anonymity.

UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado warned that “the situation may escalate further” and urged “all involved to exercise restraint.”

Hurtado also called on authorities to “allow people to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression.”

– ‘Political prisoner’-

Castillo has been in detention since last Wednesday, and is facing charges of rebellion and conspiracy after he dissolved Congress and vowed to rule by decree.

The former president met with his lawyers in Lima ahead of a hearing Tuesday in which he will seek his immediate release.

Meanwhile, the leftist governments of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia released a joint statement in support of Castillo, saying he had been “the victim of antidemocratic harassment” since his election.

Castillo’s 17-month rule was overshadowed by six investigations against him and his family, mass protests demanding his removal, and a power struggle with the opposition-controlled Congress.

Boluarte, a former prosecutor who had served as Castillo’s vice president, was quickly sworn in to replace him following his impeachment and arrest.

On Sunday, she tried to appease citizens in a televised address saying she would seek “to reach an agreement” with Congress to bring forward elections from July 2026 to April 2024.

The country’s right-leaning Congress convened an emergency session on Sunday afternoon to discuss the crisis, but it had to be suspended after fighting broke out.

On Monday, the government fired the 26 regional prefects who had been appointed by Castillo, accusing them of “inciting protests.”

– ‘Indefinite strike’ –

With his background as a rural teacher and union leader, and with little contact among the nation’s elites, Castillo has always drawn his strongest support from Andean regions, while struggling to find backing in coastal Lima.

Rural unions and organizations representing Indigenous peoples have called for an “indefinite strike” beginning Tuesday in support of Castillo, himself the son of a peasant family.

They demanded the suspension of Congress, early elections and a new constitution, as well as Castillo’s immediate release, according to a statement from the Agrarian and Rural Front of Peru, which groups about a dozen organizations.

Peru is no stranger to political instability and is now on its sixth president since 2016.

The US Department of Energy is expected to announce Tuesday that its researchers have achieved a “major scientific breakthrough” regarding nuclear fusion, a technology seen as a possible revolutionary alternative power source.

Scientists have been working for decades to develop nuclear fusion — touted by its supporters as a clean, abundant and safe source of energy that could eventually allow humanity to break its dependence on the fossil fuels driving a global climate crisis.

The Energy Department has refused to give any specific details about what it will announce Tuesday, but a Financial Times report over the weekend has set the scientific community abuzz.

According to the UK-based outlet, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have succeeded for the first time in producing a “net energy gain” from nuclear fusion, meaning more energy was produced in the reaction than was used to activate it.

If the achievement is confirmed, “that is a true breakthrough moment which is tremendously exciting,” said physicist Jeremy Chittenden with Imperial College London.

“It proves that the long sought-after goal, the ‘holy grail’ of fusion, can indeed be achieved.”

Nuclear power plants around the world currently use fission — the splitting of a heavy atom’s nucleus — to produce energy.

Fusion on the other hand combines two light hydrogen atoms to form one heavier helium atom, releasing a large amount of energy in the process.

That’s the process that occurs inside stars, including our sun.

On Earth, fusion reactions can be provoked by heating hydrogen to extreme temperatures inside specialized devices.

Researchers at the LLNL use the massive National Ignition Facility — 192 ultra-powerful lasers all pointed into a thimble-sized cylinder filled with hydrogen.

According to the Financial Times, LLNL scientists recently produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy in a nuclear fusion reaction, or about 120 percent of the 2.1 megajoules used by the lasers to initiate it.

– Decades to achieve –

That result would finally provide proof for the physical principles outlined decades ago by fusion researchers. It would be a “a success of the science,” said Tony Roulstone, a lecturer at Cambridge University.

Like fission, fusion is carbon-free during operation, but has many more advantages: it poses no risk of nuclear disaster and produces much less radioactive waste.

However, there is still a long way to go before fusion is viable on an industrial scale.

“To turn fusion into a power source we’ll need to boost the energy gain still further,” cautions Chittenden.

“We’ll also need to find a way to reproduce the same effect much more frequently and much more cheaply before we can realistically turn this into a power plant,” he added.

That could take yet another 20 or 30 years, Erik Lefebvre, project manager at the French Atomic Energy Commission, told AFP.

Climate experts however warn that the world cannot wait that long to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and limit the worst effects of global warming.

Other nuclear fusion projects are also in development around the world, including the major international project known as ITER, which is currently under construction in France.

Instead of lasers, ITER will use a technique known as magnetic confinement, containing a swirling mass of fusing hydrogen plasma within a massive donut-shaped chamber.

BTS star Jin started his mandatory South Korean military duty on Tuesday, the band’s first member to enlist since a hiatus announcement this year left fans heartbroken over the K-pop juggernaut’s uncertain future.

The septet is widely considered the country’s biggest-ever cultural phenomenon — selling out stadiums around the world and dominating the charts while raking in billions and building a global legion of fans known as ARMYs.

But all able-bodied men in South Korea must serve at least 18 months in the military, and while there was a years-long debate about whether BTS deserved an exemption, they confirmed in October that all members will enlist.

Jin — whose full name is Kim Seok-jin — reported to a frontline boot camp in Yeoncheon Tuesday to begin his five week training, kickstarting 18 months of military service.

He was riding one of the black vans that arrived in a row around 20 minutes before a 2:00 pm (0500 GMT) deadline, according to BTS’s agency HYBE.

Hundreds of media personnel and BTS fans packed an intersection in front of the boot camp’s main gate, where a sign reads “A cradle for top class combat soldiers”.

“We have mixed feelings today because on one hand, it’s normal that he does this enlistment because it’s an obligation anyway for any Korean men,” said Veronique, a 32-year-old fan from Indonesia.

“But on the other hand we cannot see him for a minimum of 18 months … Happy but also sad but also proud,” she said.

The location of Jin’s boot camp close to the border with North Korea, with which the South remains technically at war, has sparked local media speculation that he is expected to be deployed to a “frontline unit” after training.

– Fans stunned –

Fans were stunned in June when BTS revealed they were going on hiatus, citing exhaustion and pressure as well as the desire to pursue solo careers.

But analysts said the announcement was timed because of the compulsory military duty.

The group will reunite around 2025, when its seven members have completed their service.

“For a while, it’s true that there were many fans who would spend days just crying,” a South Korean fan, who runs the Twitter account @5heterotopia, told AFP.

Nimah Mustafa, a 20-year-old fan in Dubai, added: “(Jin’s absence) will be like a huge… void for me.”

South Korea exempts some elite athletes, such as Olympic medallists, and classical musicians from duty, but pop stars do not qualify.

However, BTS have already benefited from a 2020 revision to the conscription law that raised the enlistment deadline for some entertainers from age 28 to 30.

Jin, the oldest member of BTS, turned 30 on December 4.

– ‘They won’t be forgotten’ –

The seismic changes for BTS in 2022 have sparked feverish speculation among fans and K-pop watchers about what the future holds for the group — will they retain their fame or struggle to revive that success?

Some male K-pop stars have struggled to resume their careers after military service in a cut-throat industry where artists are easily replaceable.

“For the K-pop industry, the retreat of BTS will be a big deal,” Lee Taek-gwang, a communications professor at Kyung Hee University, told AFP.

However, other experts have pointed to the massive success of BTS and said they will be an exception to that trend.

They “obtained another level of popularity, influence and credibility”, said Lee Ji-young, a BTS expert and professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Since their debut in 2013, BTS have been widely credited with doing more than any diplomat or other celebrity to boost the image and soft power of South Korea, today considered a global cultural powerhouse.

They have been invited to speak at the United Nations, and to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House. They are also official ambassadors to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan, South Korea.

The South Korean government has credited BTS with bringing billions of dollars into the economy.

– ‘Frontline’ deployment? –

But despite that success, a draft proposal to grant them service exemptions proved too controversial and never made it through parliament.

“In South Korea, the military service is the indicator of egalitarianism… (where) all men are equal,” Lee at Kyung Hee University told AFP, adding it was a “necessary” symbol of citizenship.

Jin will reportedly join a “frontline unit” stationed near the border.

“It shows the role of culture, and public opinion, in shaping international affairs. Is this ‘frontline’ role a combat role, or is it about public relations and media?” Sarah Keith, a senior lecturer in media and music at Macquarie University, told AFP.

On Monday, Jin posted a photo of himself with military-style cropped hair on the South Korean social media platform Weverse, with the caption: “It’s cuter than I expected.”

A young protester has been held in police detention in southern China for nine days after taking part in rallies against Covid restrictions, her mother told AFP, expressing fear and anguish over her daughter’s safety.

China last week effectively ended its harsh zero-Covid policy, following years of economic damage and simmering public discontent that erupted in nationwide demonstrations on a scale unseen in decades.

But while the decision to lift the hardline regulations sparked a wave of jubilation — and suggestions by state media that the government was responding to the changing mood of the people — police had already begun a crackdown.

Yang Zijing, 25, was detained on the evening of December 4 in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou after attending a protest the week before, her mother said.

“They detained so many people who were gradually released, why is she still in there?,” she said.

The woman, surnamed Gao, said her daughter’s roommate told her that a group of police asked to check the water meter and did not show identification when entering.

“They searched the apartment and took her away, along with her phone and laptop.”

AFP has learned of multiple cases of mostly young protesters detained for up to 24 hours in Beijing and Shanghai, with police deploying sophisticated technology to track them down and threaten them in phone calls and in-person interrogations.

– ‘No information’ –

Gao rushed to Guangzhou on December 8 upon learning of her daughter’s detention, but both she and a lawyer have been refused access to either her daughter or the police officer handling her case.

“They refused to give us any information,” she said.

Under Chinese law, when an individual is taken into custody and interrogated, police have 24 hours to decide whether to release them or formally detain them.

If a suspect is detained, they must then be transferred to a pretrial detention centre within 24 hours.

But Gao said police had still not transferred Yang to a detention centre — allegedly due to the “epidemic situation”.

A police officer at the Guangzhou station told AFP he could not comment on Yang’s case over the phone.

A lawyer offering pro bono advice to protesters said on condition of anonymity that the majority of detentions she was aware of had not exceeded 24 hours.

But at least six demonstrators in Shanghai and Guangzhou had been held for a week or longer with some likely to receive criminal charges, she said.

“There were no reports about (the protests) in Chinese media and I had no idea it happened… I didn’t know why they were holding up blank paper,” said Gao, a reference to the blank sheets of paper held at protests as a symbol of opposition to censorship.

Friends of Yang describe her as a bookish and introverted person who possessed a strong sense of social justice and advocated for marginalised groups.

But she had suffered during the pandemic as a recent graduate working in a tough economic climate, her mother said.

“She was struggling financially. She felt like she couldn’t do anything in the past two years, lockdowns were everywhere,” she said.

“Now everyone thinks about the benefits that China’s reopening will bring, but what about the people who are locked up for demanding reopening?”