SEVENTEEN's DK and Vernon Announce Enlistment Dates. Six Members Will Now Be Serving This Fall.
Pledis Entertainment confirmed Monday that SEVENTEEN members DK and Vernon will begin mandatory military service this summer, with Vernon starting alternative service as a social service agent on Aug. 20 and DK enlisting as an active-duty Army soldier on Sept. 8.
The announcement came through an official notice on Weverse. Both members will complete their scheduled group activities before their respective enlistment dates and will be unable to participate in SEVENTEEN promotions once their service begins. Pledis asked fans not to visit DK's enlistment ceremony in person, noting that "numerous other recruits and their families will attend the event," and made the same request regarding Vernon's training center and place of alternative service. The agency said pre-recorded content for both members will continue to be released to fans while they serve.
DK and Vernon become the third and fourth SEVENTEEN members to enlist this year, following Woozi and Hoshi, who both began active-duty service in September 2025. Jeonghan completed his own alternative service between September 2024 and June 2025, and Wonwoo is currently serving as a social service agent. With DK and Vernon's dates now set, three more members - Mingyu, Seungkwan and Dino - are expected to enlist later this year, based on commitments the group made during a June fan meeting at Incheon Asiad Main Stadium. Leader S.Coups holds a medical exemption from a knee injury, while Joshua, Jun and The8 are not subject to South Korea's mandatory service requirement as foreign nationals.
The staggered enlistment schedule places SEVENTEEN's full 13-member reunion at roughly 2028, the group's 13th anniversary, based on standard 18-month active-duty terms and the alternative service track some members have chosen. The timeline hasn't slowed the group's business decisions: Pledis Entertainment announced July 13 that all 13 members renewed their contracts with the agency for a second time, a commitment made with the multi-year gap in mind rather than despite it.
DK debuted the duo DK X Seungkwan in January, and Vernon released a mini-album with The8 as V8 in June - both projects landing in the narrow window before their respective services begin. Whether either project continues in any form during their absence has not been addressed by Pledis.
South Korean law requires able-bodied men to complete national service, typically by their early 30s, and K-pop groups have increasingly staggered members' enlistments to keep some form of group activity running around the requirement. SEVENTEEN's approach has followed that pattern closely: rather than pausing entirely, the group has continued releasing music and holding fan events with whichever members remain active, a strategy that let the group's Carat Land fan meeting in June draw 55,000 fans per night across two shows even with four members already serving. DK and Vernon's participation in that event, alongside the nine other members still active at the time, gave fans an early sense of what the group's lineup will look like through the rest of this year.
