US Navy SEALs killed a number of North Korean fishermen after encountering them by chance throughout a botched mission, US information outlet studies.
Revealed On 6 Sep 2025
United States Navy SEALs shot and killed a number of North Korean civilians throughout a botched mission in 2019 to plant a listening machine within the nuclear-armed nation, reportedly permitted by US President Donald Trump, a number one US information outlet studies.
The New York Instances reported on Friday that the labeled mission was carried out by the US Navy’s SEAL Group 6 throughout high-stakes diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang in early 2019.
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The elite particular forces unit – the identical one which killed former al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2011 – was tasked with covertly going ashore in North Korea and planting a listening machine to spy on the nation’s management.
However working at nighttime with blackout communications, a sequence of errors led to civilians – a number of North Koreans reportedly diving for shellfish – inadvertently coming throughout the US particular forces as they splashed ashore.
The SEALs opened fireplace, killing all these on board a small fishing vessel, the Instances report mentioned, with out specifying the variety of casualties.
Officers acquainted with the mission advised the Instances that the US troopers “pulled the our bodies into the water to cover them from the North Korean authorities”. One supply described how SEAL members “punctured the boat crew’s lungs with knives to ensure their our bodies would sink”.
The Instances mentioned it gained data of the botched mission by interviews with dozens of individuals, “together with civilian authorities officers, members of the primary Trump administration and present and former navy personnel with data of the mission”.
All spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of mission’s labeled standing, the information outlet mentioned. It added that a number of folks mentioned their resolution to supply particulars was out of concern that the US navy’s particular operations failures are “usually hidden by authorities secrecy”.
Sources mentioned President Trump, throughout his first time period in workplace, gave the mission its remaining go-ahead.
Trump denied any data of the operations when questioned by reporters concerning the report on Friday.
“I might look, however I do know nothing about [it],” Trump mentioned.
“I’m listening to it now for the primary time,” he mentioned.
US officers mentioned it was “unclear” whether or not Pyongyang ever pieced collectively what had occurred in 2019.
North Korea didn’t make any public statements concerning the deaths of civilians on the time and has but to touch upon the story revealed by the Instances.