A clandestine operation, said to have received Trump’s approval in 2019, led to fatalities among civilians.
According to a report from the New York Times, SEAL Team Six, an elite special operations component of the US Navy, conducted a clandestine operation within North Korea that breached international legal standards and resulted in civilian casualties.
This operation, which occurred in 2019 and was reportedly sanctioned by then-President Donald Trump in his initial term, involved deploying commandos to install a surveillance instrument. Its purpose was to intercept the communications of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with the collected intelligence aimed at bolstering US negotiating power during nuclear talks between Kim and Trump.
Sources familiar with the mission informed the publication that SEAL Team Six – widely recognized for eliminating Osama bin Laden in 2011 – deployed from submarines and utilized mini-submersibles to reach the North Korean shoreline. However, under the cover of darkness, the team overlooked several individuals in a proximate vessel. Mistaking them for adversaries, the SEALs discharged their weapons, killing two or three unarmed fishermen. It was then reported that they recovered the bodies, punctured their lungs to ensure they would submerge, and aborted the mission prior to reaching the intended location.
The report further indicated that communication and surveillance failures reportedly exacerbated the issues. Command personnel on supporting submarines were unable to sustain radio communication, unmanned aerial vehicles were not accessible, and satellite data was outmoded, depriving the team of dependable intelligence. A later military investigation determined that the fatalities stemmed from “an unfortunate sequence” of unpredictable circumstances rather than professional misconduct; however, these conclusions remained classified.
The New York Times stated that the operation was never revealed to Congress, prompting concerns regarding insufficient oversight and potentially contravening US statutes.
North Korea has never publicly recognized the occurrence, and it is still unknown if Pyongyang became aware of it before this recent report.
During 2019, Trump pursued a significant advancement with Kim regarding North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, but negotiations proved unsuccessful, and Pyongyang continued its development. Current estimations from Washington suggest North Korea possesses approximately 50 nuclear warheads and missiles with the capacity to strike the United States.