BTS‘s Jin made worldwide news when he began his mandatory military service on December 13, 2022. All Korean adult men, with just a few exceptions, are expected to fulfill this duty.
He completed a five-week boot camp in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi province, before being assigned an assistant drill instructor at the 5th Infantry Division.
On top of the grueling training that he had to go through, the weather conditions at Yeoncheon were also harsher than anticipated. He confirmed in a recent interview with W Korea that the climate is at its extremes during the winter and summer seasons. When asked how intense the midsummer and midwinter were, he replied that it was “beyond imagination.”
He still remembers how cold the winter air felt when he enlisted.
I enlisted in December 2022. My friend captured the weather app on the day he enlisted, and the temperature that day felt like -30°C (laughs). It was amazing that the winter temperature could drop that much
— Jin
The more experienced soldiers at the base managed the expectations of the K-Pop idol, warning him that the summer season was also worse than what most people are used to.
When people who had been in the unit longer than me said, ‘The summer weather is also beyond imagination,’ I thought, ‘No way,’ but it really was hot in the summer.
— Jin
Luckily, Jin acclimates well to hot weather and found it intense but not unbearable. He got used to the difficult temperatures that he was faced with throughout his 18 month military service.
I’m quite heat-resistant, so it wasn’t unbearable, but I remember it getting up to around 40°C.
— Jin
The conditions at training centers, particularly during winter time, are notoriously uncomfortable.
Read more about it below.
BTS Jin’s Enlistment: What Does It Mean To Serve In The “Front Line?”
Source: W Korea
