The President praised BTS’s speech at the UN and their song “Permission To Dance”, saying BTS’s words are more effective than his
President Moon Jae In praised BTS’s speech at the 76th UN General Assembly, “Their speech worked hundreds of times more effectively than the speeches of the UN Secretary-General and mine.”
In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” aired on September 24 (local time), President Moon mentioned BTS‘s speech at the “high-level meeting on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Moment)” on the 20th. After attending the UN General Assembly on the 21st, President Moon and BTS members answered an interview with ABC.
During the interview, President Moon said, “BTS speaks on behalf of future generations as the young people can easily sympathize with their words. Therefore, BTS’s speech could help to raise the awareness of young people about global issues, such as climate change.”
Earlier, President Moon appointed BTS as the “special presidential envoy for future generations and culture”. BTS Jung Kook expressed his feelings, “I still can’t believe that we received the letter of appointment as a special envoy and could be able to perform at the UN General Assembly. I felt like the time had stopped right there. It’s such a wonderful time.”
In their speech at the UN General Assembly, BTS emphasized the need to find solutions for climate changes and the importance of vaccines for ending COVID-19 and maintaining the world’s sustainable development. They also mentioned this again in the interview. RM stated, “We also just realized the critical situation of the climate recently. I think it’s important for many people to recognize that this is not just a climate change, but it’s already a climate crisis.”
Regarding the importance of getting vaccinated, BTS Jin said, “I understand that there is still a fear of getting vaccinated. If you’re still afraid, there will be no future for the development of the world.”. Jimin said, “I hope this COVID-19 pandemic will end soon so that we can hold as many concerts as we like.”. V also commented, “It’s been nearly 2 years since we actually saw our fans (ARMY) in real life. Because I couldn’t see them in person, sometimes I even wondered, ‘Do they even exist?'”.
After BTS spoke at the “SDG Moment”, a special video of “Permission to Dance” was shown. This video was filmed in advance at the UN headquarter. In addition, this song contains a message that tells people to dance the way they like and always be happy even in difficult situations.
In response to the song, President Moon gave his compliments, “This song delivered the message of a global integration beyond the cultural differences to people around the world. This song is beautiful, and it also has great choreography”. Then, he did a dance move of the song that was created by using an international sign language.
Therefore, BTS also showed him two other dance moves that used sign language, making the President burst into laughter.
