Kim Min-ho returns for 'Shinbyeong 4: Sabotage' — four years in uniform and counting

Kim Min-ho has spent four years playing Sergeant Park Min-seok. Season 4 isn't letting him go.

Shinbyeong 4: Sabotage, the new ENA Tuesday-Wednesday drama, held its production presentation on August 24 at Sindorim D-Cube City in Seoul. Director Min Jin-gi and cast members Kim Min-ho, Kim Dong-jun, Oh Dae-hwan, Lee Hyun-gyun, Lee Won-jung, and Nam Tae-woo showed up. The first episode aired the same night at 10 PM.

Park Min-seok is now a sergeant with three stripes. Kim Min-ho explained the character shift: "Min-seok knows he is a sweet senior. He wants to fit in among the real senior soldiers." Nam Tae-woo joins as Sergeant Choi Il-gu, returning as a sergeant. A mysterious new recruit and a new battalion commander round out the additions, and both send the Sinhwa unit scrambling back into combat mode. Lee Hyun-gyun and Lee Won-jung are new to the cast this season. Kim Dong-jun also gets a promotion in rank.

The subtitle sabotage says it all: the show promises non-stop chaos for the unit. A "military spoon" recruit walks into a barracks full of good, bad, and strange characters.

Kim Min-ho didn't hold back about the physical toll. Mud-rolling scenes require the cast to repeat the same training roughly ten times per shoot, compared to the single run actual soldiers do. (Someone told him he must have been a draft dodger in a past life when he announced season 4 — he laughed.)

On why the franchise has lasted this long, he was blunt: "'Shinbyeong' will likely be the life work I remember most before I die. Even if I meet a greater work, 'Shinbyeong' will likely be the top priority."