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NYT Reveals Failed Secret SEAL Mission in North Korea

In 2019, SEAL team aborted mission to plant listening device, killed apparent civilians on boat
Posted Sep 5, 2025 11:18 AM CDT
NYT Reveals Failed SEAL Mission in North Korea
In this 2018 photo, President Trump shakes hands with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The New York Times is for the first time revealing a secret mission by Navy SEALs in North Korea that unraveled in dramatic fashion back in 2019. It reads like an espionage thriller, though one with fatal consequences for up to three North Korea fishermen. Under a top-secret plan approved by President Trump, SEAL Team 6's Red Squadron—the same unit famous for killing Osama bin Laden—used mini submarines to reach the North Korean shore at nighttime in early winter. Their mission was to sneak ashore and plant a newly developed listening device to pick up on Kim Jong Un's communications. Some of the SEALs had made it to shore when the trouble came:

  • "A North Korean boat appeared out of the dark. Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire. Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead."

In the aftermath, the SEALs discovered that those on the boat appeared to be civilians diving for shellfish—they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The divers apparently heard the subs and began to investigate, with one of them actually jumping in the water. The story explains that the SEALs were incommunicado and had to make a split-second decision on what to do. After killing the divers, they aborted the mission to plant the device, returned to their larger submarine, and headed to open sea. The story alleges that the Trump administration did not brief members of Congress before or after the mission, adding that the "lack of notification may have violated the law." Read the full story.

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