When a British band goes on hiatus to pursue a solo career, things tend to get a bit tetchy. From the Beatles to Take That, One Direction to Little Mix, there’s always a quietly ferocious battle for one of the group to become The Big Breakout Star. Not so with BTS, the K-pop boy band sensation that’s topped charts around the world.
While the seven members have been rotating through mandatory military service for South Korea, they’ve been taking it in turns to keep the home fires burning for their legion of dedicated fans: the Army. At 32 Kim Seok-jin, better known by his mononym Jin, is the oldest member of BTS and thus the first to enlist and the first to return to civilian life. He’s been hard at work, releasing two EPs — Happy (2024) and Echo (2025) and embarking on his first solo tour, the RunSeokjin Ep. Tour, with nine stops of two dates in each city.
