Photo = PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT

 

[Hanteo News = Reporter KANG SUYOUNG] SEVENTEEN JEONGHAN completed his military service today (25th) after being discharged from his duties as a social service worker. It comes about one year and nine months after he enlisted on September 26, 2024. He is the first among SEVENTEEN’s 13 members to complete his military service.

 

For large-member groups, military enlistment is a double-edged sword. The more members there are, the longer the period in which enlistments and discharges continue one after another. The way 13-member group SEVENTEEN handled this issue was dispersion. JEONGHAN enlisted first in September 2024, followed by WONWOO in April 2025, then WOOZI and HOSHI in September of the same year. Instead of several members leaving at once, they enlisted one by one with intervals in between, spreading out the impact so that the gap in full-group activities would not come all at once.

 

The empty spaces were filled with unit and solo activities. Combinations such as BSS, HOSHI X WOOZI, and S.COUPS X MINGYU continued activities, filling the space left by the full group. According to Hanteo Chart, SEVENTEEN’s Hanteo album sales in 2025 totaled 5,096,138 copies, and among them, unit activities such as BSS, HOSHI X WOOZI, and S.COUPS X MINGYU accounted for 1,895,400 copies, or about 37.2% of the total. This means that units filled a significant portion of the space left by the full group. Chinese members THE 8 and JUN also continued their activities in the Greater China region.

 

This strategy actually proved effective. Even while members were gradually leaving one by one, SEVENTEEN held two stadium-scale ‘CARAT LAND’ fan meetings at Incheon Asiad Main Stadium and also took the stage at Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome in Japan. The fact that the group could fill large venues even as a nine-member lineup is proof that the combination of staggered enlistments and unit and solo activities actually worked.

 

The next phase may unfold differently. Now that JEONGHAN has returned, the remaining members who have yet to serve are MINGYU, DK, SEUNGKWAN, VERNON, and DINO. In YouTube content released on May 29, SEVENTEEN said of the timing of their military enlistments, “We’re all going this year.” This means that all five members’ enlistments are not far away. Until now, members had left one by one with time gaps in between, but this time, several members will enlist around a similar period. In the meantime, THE 8 X VERNON unit ‘V8,’ scheduled for release on June 29, and DINO’s solo debut as his alter ego ‘PI CHEOLIN’ are planned. Whether SEVENTEEN can once again fill a concentrated gap, rather than a dispersed one, with the unit and solo strategy it has shown so far will be the next point to watch.

 

JEONGHAN’s discharge is the result created by that first cycle. Over the past one year and nine months, SEVENTEEN has proven that its scale of 13 members can be not a weakness, but a resource that makes diverse combinations possible.

 

grace@hanteo.com

 

 

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