He Lost His Brother to the Army. Then He Sang Korea’s Enlistment Song.

Part 6 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 11, “A Letter from a Private,” is the song Korean men listen to the night before they enlist, and Kim Kwang-seok sang it thinking of the oldest brother he lost in the army. The film Joint Security Area used this one song to seat soldiers from North and South in the same guard post, and in North Korea, too, the song is sung under another title.

Kim Kwang-seok – “A Letter from a Private” (Official Audio, 2022 Remastered) — 420,000 views

Its combined views come to about 19.9 million. Most Korean men must serve about 18 months in the military, and on enlistment day their family and friends see them off at the gate of the training camp.

Written on a bus, sung first by Jeon In-kwon

The song was written by singer-songwriter Kim Hyun-sung. In 1983, at 21, he saw a friend off to the army at the Bulgwang-dong intercity bus terminal in Seoul and wrote the song on the bus ride home. It was first recorded in 1990 on Songs of the Nation 1, an album produced by Kim Min-ki, sung by Jeon In-kwon of the rock band Deulgukhwa (Korea Economic Daily, Dec. 4, 2023). Kim Kwang-seok put it on his 1993 remake album Dasi Bureugi I (Melon).

이제 다시 시작이다 / 젊은 날의 꿈이여

Now it all begins again, / dream of my young days.

— Lyrics and music by Kim Hyun-sung, excerpt

The song follows one enlistment day in order. He bows deeply to his parents before he walks out the gate. At the station he begs his friends to write. The train whistle blows and the waving faces grow small. At the training camp, his freshly buzzed head looks funny at first, then his face in the mirror hardens, and his heart with it. On a night when the bugle call spreads across the camp, the private folds a single letter and sends it home.

Also read: IU and BTS's Suga Both Sang Him. Who Was Kim Kwang-seok?

Thinking of his brother

Kim’s oldest brother died while serving in the military. Because of that, Kim served only a short six-month stint as a private. Critic Oh Kwang-su wrote that “Kim Kwang-seok sang ‘A Letter from a Private’ thinking of his oldest brother, who went to the army and never came back” (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Feb. 14, 2022). After losing his brother, Kim is said to have repeated, “A child must never go before his parents” (Oct. 7, 2017, “Why Kim Kwang-seok Is Not Just a Pop Star”).

So the line about bowing to his parents and walking out the gate becomes a different scene in Kim’s voice. It’s sung by the youngest son of a house that had already watched one son walk out that gate and never come back. And that youngest son, too, went before his parents. I had to stop writing for a long while at this point. As a fan, I can’t begin to imagine how much it hurt him to sing this song.

His official channel has posted a video of him singing it to soldiers at a military morale concert, with Yoon Sang on bass.

Kim Kwang-seok – “A Letter from a Private” (military morale concert) — 76,000 views

“Why’d Kwang-seok have to die so young?”

The film that handed this song to the next generation was Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area in 2000. In a North Korean guard post, South Korean Sgt. Lee Soo-hyuk (Lee Byung-hun) plays a cassette tape, “A Letter from a Private” comes on, and North Korean Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho) says, “Ah, makes me think of my mother. But why’d Kwang-seok have to die so young? Hey, let’s have one drink, just one, for our Kwang-seok” (Korea Economic Daily, Dec. 4, 2023). It is still the most quoted line whenever Koreans talk about Kim (Kyunghyang Shinmun, Jan. 28, 2024).

In January 2001, the year after the film came out, Lee Byung-hun sang the song himself on a KBS variety show.

Lee Byung-hun – “A Letter from a Private” (KBS, Jan. 20, 2001) — 47,000 views

The scene didn’t stay in the film. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that young men heading into the North Korean army also sing the song together, under the title “Oath on the Day of Leaving” (Sept. 24, 2025). Like “Where the Wind Blows” in Part 11, Kim’s songs have crossed the DMZ twice.

DAY6’s Sungjin, Kim Dong-jun, and Choi Seung-yeol

Among broadcasters’ official videos, the most-watched is Choi Seung-yeol’s stage on the Kim Kwang-seok episode of JTBC’s Hidden Singer 2, at 1.22 million. DAY6’s Sungjin sang it on KBS radio in 2016, and Kim Dong-jun, formerly of ZE:A, sang it on KBS’s Immortal Songs this March.

Choi Seung-yeol – “A Letter from a Private” (Hidden Singer 2, JTBC) — 1.22 million views

Sungjin (DAY6) – “A Letter from a Private” (KBS Cool FM, 2016) — 50,000 views

Kim Dong-jun – “A Letter from a Private” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2026) — 60,000 views

A 21-year-old who saw a friend off to the army wrote this song, and a youngest son who lost his brother in the army sang it. The twenty-year-olds who now walk out the gate to this song will already live longer than he did. If they think of him even once while listening, that is enough for someone who loves him as I do.

Previous: Part 5 — The Other Song He Sang on His Last Night on TV

Next, No. 10: “Becoming Dust,” the song Kim wanted badly, which the composer gave to another singer.

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Sources: Korea Economic Daily (Dec. 4, 2023); Melon (lyrics and music by Kim Hyun-sung; Kim Kwang-seok, Dasi Bureugi I, 1993); Kyunghyang Shinmun (Feb. 14, 2022; Jan. 28, 2024; Sept. 24, 2025); “Why Kim Kwang-seok Is Not Just a Pop Star” (Oct. 7, 2017). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.