[HanCinema's News] Yim Si-wan Accused of Getting Special Treatment During Mandatory Military Service

On June 17th a commenter who claimed to have spent eight months in the same unit as celebrity Yim Si-wan made a social media post about the celebrity. He prefaced his statements by writing that he's not sure how harsh this sounds, but that he isn't interested in discussing the matter further with reporters or anyone else beyond this one comment.

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The commenter explained that normal soldiers receive about forty days of vacation. Soldier vacation take place in four night-five day segments that have to be requested. Normal soldiers get seven or eight vacations, although more are generally requested. Yim Si-wan's unit was more intensive than regular ones, so they received similarly extensive vacations.

According to the commenter, Yim Si-wan received somewhere between one hundred and one hundred ten days of vacation. What's more, he received vacation time during special periods, like on military event days and the Pyeongchang Olympics. The commenter describes the treatment Yim Si-wan received as comparable to that by the unit's best performing soldiers.

Interestingly the commenter closes by specifically denying that his description is intended as a denigration of Yim Si-wan himself. He described Yim Si-wan as a kind man with a bright face who never spoke in anger, who shared snacks sent in from his fans with the rest of the unit and was happy to sign pictures or pose for photos. The implication appears to be that Yim Si-wan did not ask for special treatment, but that his relevant superiors gave it to him without needing to be asked.

Written by William Schwartz