I don’t remember a time in the last two years when I did not find at least one person in my vicinity or circle being a K-pop junkie or being thoroughly invested in Korean media. It is through some of my K-pop addict friends that I got to know about this interesting rule that exists in South Korea.
Every citizen in South Korea has to go through compulsory military training for a certain time in their lives which includes 20 months of service. Unfortunately for the celebrities, this means going on a hiatus of almost 2 years when their fans can hear quite little to nothing about them.
It is not necessary to remain isolated from the outside world during military training. But in most cases, there’s a hiatus in the careers of these celebrities for the training.
In 2022, many such celebrities, most of whom have a steady fanbase of loyal admirers are all set to complete their military training and return to the limelight.
Here are some of the superstars from Korea who we cannot wait to see back on screen again.
1Members of EXO
Exo is one of the most well known Korean boy bands in the world and 2022 is definitely going to be a year of returns for them. Full-group activities of EXO had been paused for a long time since half of its members were enlisted.
After Suho, the leader of the band enlisted, the group released their special album “Don’t Fight The Feeling”. Despite being in training, Suho supported his band by posting on his Instagram.
2022 is ready to witness the return of several of its members including Suho, Chanyeol and Chen. I guess we can assume that full-group activities will begin soon since most of the members are returning this year.
2BtoB’s Sungjae and Hyunsik
BtoB is a young boy band whose members have remained active in a sub-unit of the band called BtoB 4 U. But two of their youngest members, Sungjae (26 years) and Hyunsik (29 years) are all set to complete their service and return this year.
Fans are optimistic about their return because that could mean resuming of BtoB’s full group activities, which had stopped after a member of the band was sentenced to prison for using marijuana and two essential members left for their training.
3Winner’s Jinu and Honny
Jinu is the vocalist of the boy band Winner and had enlisted himself back in 2020. Hoony is another fellow member who enlisted himself in April 2020. The two members left for training right before the release of their third studio album ‘Remember’.
The band went on hiatus after two of their four members left, while the other two members, Yoon and Mino, pursued their own careers. Finally, in 2022, Jinu and Honny are all set to return to the stage.
4Woo Do-hwan
Woo Do-hwan, best known for his work in The King: Eternal Monarch was also discharged from military in January 2022. According to his agency, the actor is in talks with Netflix to star in the upcoming series Hunting Dogs, based on an action webtoon of the same name.
5Vixx’s Ken
Member of yet another boy ground Vixx, Ken has also been discharged in January 2022. However, since then, fellow members of Vixx such as Hongbin, N and Ravi have not renewed their contracts with Vixx’s agency.
So, the future of the band is questionable and resuming of full-group activities is also not yet confirmed even after Ken’s return.
5Zico
The leader of the boy group Block B, Zico is expected to be discharged from military by early 2022. But he left the band back in 2018 and established his own label in 2019. Zico’s career took off after the release of his single Any Song.
His return may not guarantee full-group running of Block B, but fans are excited to see Zico back in action.
6Park Bo-gum
Park Bo-gum is one of the only people in this list whose career has not been on hiatus because of his military training. While training, he appeared on screen in the television drama Record of Youth and the movie Seabok.
Bo-gum serves as a cultural promotional soldier in the military and plays the keyboard. Nevertheless, we will hopefully see him working much more once he is discharged in April 2022.
8SHINee’ Taemin
The last SHINee member to join the army was Taemin, who entered the military band once he got himself enlisted. Fortunately for him, he did not lose his celebrity status and fame after joining the military.
Though we won’t be able to see him back full time in early 2022, he is all set to complete his training in November 2022.
No Comments on Here Are the Korean Celebrities Who Are Getting Discharged from the Military in 2022