US special operations team botched 2019 mission in North Korea

U.S. Navy Seals

A U.S. Navy Seals team attempted to plant a listening device in North Korea in early 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term, with the ultimately aborted mission resulting in the deaths of North Koreans believed to have been unarmed, The New York Times reported Friday.

The failed mission, which was meant to intercept communications involving North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while nuclear talks proceeded with the United States, prompted a series of military reviews but was never disclosed to key lawmakers, possibly in violation of federal law, the newspaper said.

Trump met with Kim in Singapore in June 2018 in the first direct talks between the leaders of the two countries. They signed a joint statement at the time pledging complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

They met again in February 2019 in Vietnam’s Hanoi, but their talks unraveled quickly.
Trump approved the mission in the fall of 2018, the newspaper said. The report was based on interviews with two dozen people, including former military personnel with knowledge of the mission.

According to the report, a small group of SEALs in two mini-subs approached the North Korean shore under cover of darkness. But while some of the operatives were on land, a North Korean boat moved toward the mini-subs and its crew members began shining flashlights in their direction.

Amid a communications blackout for secrecy, SEALs on shore opened fire on the boat, killing everyone aboard, including one who had already entered the sea, the newspaper said. Evidence suggested the crew members, numbering two or three, were unarmed civilians diving for shellfish, it added.

The SEALs returned to a nuclear submarine that came to shallow water to pick them up.
U.S. spy satellites picked up increased military activity in the area soon after the episode, but it was unclear whether the North Koreans ever found out exactly what had happened, the report said.