Suspicions over celebrity soldiers’ vacation privileges continue.
On Oct. 8, KBS’s News 9 pointed out that the average number of vacation days for celebrity soldiers is 82 days, which is almost a month longer than ordinary soldiers.
The news report stated, “This privilege also did not eliminate celebrities who enlisted after raising controversial issues in society a few years back.” According to the report, this is how much vacation days these celebrity soldiers used: CNBLUE’s Jonghyun used 81 days, former Highlight member Junhyung used 64 days so far, actor Kim Min Seok used 88 days, BTOB’s Seo Eunkwnag used 108 days, and SHINee’s Key used 69 days.
The Ministry of National Defense has revised the related guidelines at the end of last year due to the continuous controversy over special treatment the celebrities were receiving during their military service. They placed regulations, including downsizing the length of time and the number of events that soldiers can participate in, limiting reward vacations to up to 10 days.
Petition vacations were also a problem. If most soldiers receive only three days for this particular type of vacation, 2AM’s Jeong Jinwoon received 46 days, SHINee’s Onew received 37 days, and Yong Junhyung received 33 days so far.
Rep. Kim Byung Ki of the Minjoo Party of Korea said, “It is true that we are particularly generous to celebrity soldiers. The standards should be the same. Every single soldier commits to the same service in the military.”
The Ministry of National Defense claimed that the celebrity soldiers’ petition vacation was duly carried out after receiving related documents, but did not disclose details.
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