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jeons-catalyst · 3 days

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JIKOOK AND THE BUDDY SYSTEM (ENLISTMENT)

I have been going back and forth with myself on whether i should address this or not and finally decided to address it because it seems like even some jikookers are still confused about how some things work in the military and with those enlisted as Buddies so let’s clear up some misconceptions, shall we?

WHAT IS THE BUDDY SYSTEM

The Buddy System in the korean military is a system that allows close friends or relatives to enlist together, train together and be deployed to the same living unit where they will serve side by side, providing mutual support and companionship throughout their military duty until discharged.

This basically means that buddies spend the entire 18 months of military service together. Separating them defeats the whole purpose of the buddy system which is to provide mutual support and companionship through out the service.

CAN BUDDIES HAVE DIFFERENT JOBS?

Yes buddies can 100% have different Jobs but having different military jobs doesn’t mean they get separated from each other. As we all know, Jimin and Jungkook were deployed to the 5th infantry division after their basic training and under that division they joined one of the artillery battalions. The misconception that almost everyone had before was that Jimin and Jungkook could only work with machines just because they had been deployed to the artillery battalion but how it actually works is that, there are different jobs within the artillery battalion. Not everyone who is deployed to that battalion has to work with the machines. As we know Jungkook is a Cook or kitchen police in the artillery battalion where he and Jimin were assigned while Jimin works at the Fire direction Centre in the same battalion. People in the artillery battalion still need to eat and the military cooks are soldiers themselves so that is why in every unit or battalion in the military, you would see cooks, healthcare workers, people who work in maintenance, cleaning etc. There are plenty of different jobs within a unit but it is the exact same unit and the best way to explain this is by looking at two people who live in the same house and work in the same hospital but in different capacities. One could works as a lab technician while the other works as a chef in the hospital kitchen. They do different jobs but at the same place and still come home to each other at the end of the day.

So, not only do Jimin and Jungkook still see each other everyday, they also still sleep in the same dormitory because they enlisted as buddies. I have seen arguments about this with someone claiming that those who work in the kitchen sleep and work in a completely different area and i don’t know how true this is in regular military terms but terms and conditions apply with the buddy system ofcourse. So even if soldiers who enlisted alone have to abide by those rules, they would be obviously different for those who enlisted as buddies because they enlisted as buddies to provide mutual support to each other throughout their service so being separated defeats the purpose of the system they choose to enlist with.

DOES AGE INFLUENCE WHERE, WHEN OR WHO JUNGKOOK ENLISTED WITH?

This is another argument i have seen people make to explain why Jungkook enlisted with Jimin as Buddies and when he enlisted so i want to clear a few things up.

Every South Korean male is required to complete a mandatory military service once they turn 18 years old and from this point, any one can get called to service by their government at any time. Getting called to service means receiving a letter from the ministry of defense asking you to start preparations for your mandatory enlistment and this could be sent to you at anytime after one turns 18 years old. Usually, those who are ready to serve after they turn 18 years old accept the call and enlist but those who are not ready to serve yet can postpone their employment for a maximum of 5 times (5 postponement requests) and only until they turn 28. What this means is that any male in south korea can enlist anytime within the ages of 18-28 but cannot postpone their enlisted after 5 requests and after they turn 28 years old.

Terms and conditions still apply in this case because we know that Jin was able to postpone his enlistment until he was 30 years old but the only reason this was possible was because a law was recently passed which allowed all men who had received medals or recognition for helping to spread or elevate South Korea’s influence all over the world to be able to postpone till 30 and all BTS members got this medals and recognition in 2018. This made it possible for them to be able to postpone till 30.

I did mention South Korean men being able to request for their military service to be postponed for a period of 1-2 years per request and a maximum of 5 requests. So this means that one request for postponement can grant one up to 1-2 years and one can only put in a request to postpone a call-up for a maximum of 5 times. That is why when we usually got the notifications from bighit about the members enlistment, we saw something like this.

Here it states that “Jhope of BTS has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement”

So Hobi had applied to postpone his enlistment because when the call up came, he wasn’t ready to enlist yet so when he eventually was ready to enlist, he applied for that postponement request to be terminated which meant that he was going to get called to enlist at any moment from then.

The reason i wanted to explain all this with great detail is to debunk all those claims that Jungkook was too young to enlist by himself so he could only go in with a buddy and to also debunk the claims that because of the reunion in 2025, he had to enlist with Jimin to get an earlier date else he could get called up much later which would have affected the reunion plans for 2025.

We can clearly see that there was no such thing as too young to enlist for Jungkook because he is well over 18 years old and if he wanted to get called to serve with enough time to make it for the reunion, all he had to do was to apply for his postponement request to be terminated and he was going to get a call to serve his country.

So no! Jungkook’s age didn’t affect who, where or when he enlisted or enlisted with. He could enlist by himself and wouldn’t have had a single problem doing so.

JUNGKOOK’S “SPECIAL FORCES” COMMENT.

Another thing we have heard jikook antis say several times to invalidate Jikook enlisting together was them quoting what Jungkook said during the OT4 Wlive on December 5th 2023 where Jungkook said “I want to do special forces”

So what i want to clarify here is that the translation was correct. Jungkook did mention wanting to so special forces but what the translation didn’t do was give us better context. A lot of context is usually lost in translation and that is why only native korean speakers caught the nuance that we missed.

First of all, there’s more than one special forces. Special Forces is the unbrella term for different specialized units in the korean military just like we know that in the military we have the Army, Airforces, Marines which are all military but operate differently.

Taehyung joined one of the special forces units called 특임군사경찰 which is the Army Military Police Special Duty Team or SDT. The length of time for this is the regular 18 months. The special forces Jungkook mentioned on Live was 특전병 which is ROK-SWC or Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command whose term is about 4 years and 3 months. The application codes for both of these are different too and we know this thanks to K Army who were able to tell the difference that we missed with the translation. (These person is a Jungkook solo who doesn’t like Jimin so we know they had no reason to lie about this)

Now, seeing as the term for the special forces Jk spoke about is over 4 years, it isn’t crazy to think that he was kidding when he said that because he knows that he will never be able to do that. Maybe it was just something Jungkook admired and while Tae spoke about his SDT, Jk mentioned it in the moment knowing fully well that it wouldn’t be a possibility.

I have seen jikook antis use this to try to claim that Jungkook’s first choice wasn’t BS with Jimin as if Jungkook hadn’t known for years that he couldn’t do the special forces either because of tattoos or because of the term. Besides, we have just seen proof that he could very well enlist on his own even if he couldn’t do special forces yet he still enlisted with Jimin.

BUDDY SYSTEM ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

While the BS has it perks, it is not without it drawbacks.

Some of the advantages of the buddy system include, having a buddy to go through the tough period with hence not doing it alone, but because those who apply for the buddy system are not going to be going through the whole thing alone, they are often sent to the harshest units and which are usually at the frontlines or the borders of South korea and North korea. Also, there was a risk of having to start the entire enlistment process all over again if Jikook were not selected for the Buddy System which might have delayed enlistment and caused them both not to be back on time for the reunion in 2025.

CAN COUPLES ENLIST TOGETHER AS BUDDIES?

This has always been the milion dollar question and what everyone has used to try to debunk jikook.

There is no law that states that a gay couple cannot enlist together as buddies in the South Korean military. It literally isn’t mentioned anywhere so a gay couple choosing to enlist together are not breaking any laws by just enlisting together because there is no law against that. Where there is a problem is if two males are caught in any indecent sexual activity involving anal sex or penetration while they are on base. The military still discriminates against homosexual men but people who are not out cannot be discriminated upon can they? So as long as a gay couple are not out and are not caught having sex on base while in the military, they aren’t breaking any rules.

The only rule that mentions anything to this effect is article 92-6 which prohibits all active soldies from engaging into any sexual act with each other while enlisted with a punishment of up to 2 years imprisonment if caught. This rule wasn’t created to punish sexuality but the curb sexual assault which was rampant in the military consisted of mostly men. Up until 2022 it was forbidden for two enlisted men to have sexual intercourse even offbase but the supreme court ruled that this law cannot be applied to consensual acts which happened off base during off duty hours.

Some people have also claimed that gay couples who enlist together cannot come out even after service because they could still be arrested but this is definitely not true. As long as you are discharged from the military are back to being a civilian, the military cannot arrest you because you enlisted with your lover. This is even made evident by the fact that the new law which the supreme court passed back in 2022 doesn’t punish soldiers who have consensual sex off base during their off duty hours. So if this doesn’t carry any punishment then why on earth would two people who have been discharged from the military face consequences for coming out after their discharge?

As far as everyone, including the ministry of defense is concerned, Jimin and Jungkook are bandmates, friends and bros from the same town, Busan. If Jikook are a couple, that is something only both of them know.

All you need to know about the buddy system is on the official military website that you can trust so stop listening to people who don’t know what they are talking about. I brought this up again because i still see so many jikookers being confused about the whole things and because the cult and solos are determined to prove that Jikook are not together.

The official ministry website says buddies enlist and serve together side by side for the entire 18 months but Aloysius from Alabama who has never stepped foot in South Korea or said even a word in korean is busy telling people how Jikook are separated and never see each other. Besides one of the easiest ways you can tell is by looking at their foodtrays. Jimin and Jungkook having the exact same meals everyday, everytime and Aloysius claims Jimin is in the west and Jungkook the South.

#jimin #jungkook #jikook #enlistment

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nikonladyz4 · 6 months

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JK and JM decision to enlist together.

⁠JK and JM felt it was in their best interest to serve together. This speaks to the bond they have, whatever their relationship is or is not. They both knew that tattoos could limit life choices for them, yet they still chose to ink themselves. During the live, it was Jimin who spoke about wanting to join the Special Forces. JK seemed to mumble something too. The unit they were speaking of is the ROK Special Forces unit that reports directly to the President similar to the US Army Green Berets or Navy Seals. Both JM and JK have the physical abilities, martial arts skills, MMA skills, etc to do this level of training. Tattoos ARE ALLOWED in this unit. The issue is it requires a 4 year commitment and serving potentially around the world. This unit is for a career soldier. The Unit V is enlisting with is Special Operations/Military Police. This unit only requires an 18 month commitment and yes, does not allow visible tattoos. Remember all members have tattoos.

Jimin and JK had to apply months ago for this companion program. It was a three stage process that took several months for approval. They most likely knew for years they were going to enlist together. Jungkook got his first tattoo in Sept 2019. All members had planned to enlist in the military in 2020, before COVID killed those plans. JK had to know when he got his very visible tattoo what the limitations were regarding the military, yet he chose to move forward. Even back then, he could not serve for 4 years. He and JM had most likely decided back then they were going to do the companion program. In 2019/2020, they were perceived to be much closer back during that time, than they are in 2022/2023. Yet, we now know how close they really were/are this year, in spite of limited public outings.

They both had the opportunity to apply to a multitude of units that would accept their tattoos, individually. However, they were limited in the units that accept the companion program. This should tell the naysayers that Jimin and Jungkook have a tight bond. They gave up other units that would have been a lot more comfortable and safer (locating land mines) if they had enlisted separately. We may never know the true reason for the joint enlistment, but obviously they are close friends who love and depend on each other. This has nothing to do with shipping, but simply the bond between them. They are looking out for each other verses meeting individual goals or challenges.

#bts jimin #bts jungkook #jikook #enlistment

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