K-Pop band BTS delivers speech at the UN General Assembly

K-Pop band BTS delivered a speech at the 76th United Nations General Assembly on Monday in New York. They spoke on climate change and how the youth play a big role in the world’s fight against climate change. These are some of the excerpts from their speech at the UN headquarters in New York.

“Before we came here, we asked teens and people in their 20s around the world, where they find themselves today,” said RM, a member of BTS. He forwarded the mic to Jin, who spoke on climate change and their Youth Today, Youth Stories campaign.

“It’s a tough discussion,” said a member of the BTS.

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“Everyone agrees that Climate Change is an important problem but talking about the best solution might be, that’s not easy. It’s a topic that is tough to make conclusions about.

“I hope we don’t just consider the future as grim darkness. we still have many pages in our story, and we shouldn’t talk as if the ending is already written,” said RM in his speech.

“Instead of Lost generation, a more appropriate name would be the Welcome Generation, because instead of fearing change this generation says welcome, and keeps forging ahead.

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“Of course sometimes the world seems stuck in place even if you are ready to go, sometimes it feels like you’ve lost your way. There was a time we felt the same way.”

Talking on COVID, BTS said: 

“It was a time for us to mourn, for the things that COVID-19 took away from us, a time to discover how precious each and every moment we had taken for granted was.”

“We were heartbroken when our long planned tours were cancelled, and for a long while we yearned for the moments we wanted to make complete,” Jin added.

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“We are in the ideal time of our lives to take on new challenges. It wasn’t as if you could blame anyone. You must have felt the frustration… the world changed like if we were transported in a flash to a parallel one.”

“There were times during the past two years when I too felt bewildered and troubled, but still, we had people who cried out “let’s live on, let’s make the best of this moment.”

Ending their speech, they performed their song “Permission to Dance” at the UN headquarters.