South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday officially named BTS the ‘Special Presidential Envoy for Future Generations and Culture’ by awarding the Grammy-nominated music group the certificates of appointment.
The band met the President at the main building of the Blue House, the office and residence of President Moon in Seoul, for the ceremony.
According to a series of tweets posted on the verified Twitter account of the Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae in Korean), the septet will also attend the 76th UN General Assembly session in New York on September 20 as part of their duties along with the President.
BTS – RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook – received their diplomatic passports and a fountain pen each from Moon, who also gave a fist bump to the members as per the video shared by the Blue House on the microblogging website.
Moon and the music group will take part in the second meeting of the Sustainable Development Goals Moment (SDG Moment) of the Decade of Action to be held on Monday.
“As BTS has delivered messages of comfort and hope to the world over the years, BTS’ participation in the UN General Assembly will serve as a meaningful opportunity to expand communication with future generations around the world and elicit sympathy for future generations on major international issues,” the tweet from the Blue House read.
According to the UN, the SDG Moment will seek to reinforce the continued relevance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and build momentum in advance of major summits and intergovernmental meetings, highlight urgent actions needed to ensure COVID-19 response and recovery efforts are equitable, inclusive and accelerate the transition to sustainable development, and demonstrate that transformative change at scale is possible between now and 2030.
The band’s participation at this year’s UN General Assembly will be their third, following an in-person appearance in 2018 and their second, a pre-recorded video message in 2020 owing to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
It was announced in July that Moon has appointed BTS – the full name is Bangtan Sonyeondan (meaning Bulletproof Boy Scouts) or Beyond The Scene, their English branding – as his special envoy.
On Monday, British band Coldplay announced their new single “My Universe” featuring BTS. The track will be released on September 24.
BTS recently won two MTV Video Music Awards in best group and best K-pop categories.
