South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) has announced that it will make a decision on the possibility of BTS‘ exemption from military service by December.

The announcement was made during tourism minister Park Bo-kyun’s attendance of the South Korean National Assembly’s parliamentary inspection of the administration yesterday (October 5), per Ten Asia. Park shared a timeline for the decision after People Power Party member Lee Yong-ho requested for him to “actively review the issue of BTS’s military service”, as translated by Soompi.

“Member Jin’s enlistment is set to be sorted out by December, but the MCST will finalise our stance as soon as possible before then,” Park said in response. Under current South Korean law, BTS’ oldest member Jin, who turns 30 this December, will soon be required to fulfil the country’s military service mandate once he hits the age limit for conscription.

“We are comprehensively reviewing the issue by looking at various aspects including the points that national defence is a sacred duty, [and] military service is a symbol of fairness,” Park clarified.

“BTS has made Korea known as the vanguard of K-culture and created a huge economic ripple effect; there are equity issues between popular artists including BTS and those who practice fine arts. This will affect the group when one of the BTS members joins the army, there are [results of] public opinion analysis and opinions of men in their 20s [to be considered], and so on.”

In other BTS news, the ‘Butter’ act are set to take over Busan next weekend on October 15 in support of the city’s bid to host the World City Expo in 2030. In addition to holding a free concert, HYBE has teamed up with several entertainment venues and businesses to turn the city into a “concert play park” throughout the month.