Korean Military Using their Enlisted Celebrities for Profit?

Recently the Korean Marines came under fire after a “Publicity Book” was created that had pictures of Hyunbin and his military training. Now a similar problem regarding the Korean military and using celebrities for profit is occurring. It was revealed through SBS that episodes containing celebrities Lee Jun Ki and Tony An during their military service were being sold to Japan.

The PR division was supposedly selling these episodes to the Japanese media at approximately 3,000 dollars per episode. Lee Jun Ki’s entertainment agency revealed that they had no knowledge of this before. Also the entertainment agency continues to receive upset calls from Japanese agencies, Japanese fans, and even Korean fans.

An official for the PR division within the military argue that there is nothing wrong or illegal with this whole process and that they will continue to sell the episodes overseas. They argue that the episodes portray the strength of the Korean military and also introduce others to Korean culture.

According to Money Today, “We followed official rules. Therefore it does not make sense to accuse us for using celebrities.”

This issue alongside Hyunbin’s recent “photo album/book” controversy brings up the following issues.

1)     Currently all male Korean citizens are required to enter into military service, because of this fact, is it ok for these celebrities to be used for profit by the military?

  a) Are these celebrities being paid, and if not, is that fair?

  b) Should the Korean military even be allowed to sell photo albums, clips with the enlisted Korean celebrities?

2)     Does the release footage improve/decline the image of the portrayed stars?