A 2019 mission in North Korea, which intended to have Navy SEALs plant an electronic device to intercept communications of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, resulted in an unsuccessful operation that left unarmed North Koreans dead, according to a report from the New York Times on Friday.
The mission, which took place during President Donald Trump’s first term, required the president’s direct approval, the Times reports, and came amid high-level nuclear talks between the US and North Korea.
The White House and Pentagon declined to comment. CNN has also reached out to the US Special Operations Command and North Korea’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York for comment on the report.
According to the Times, SEAL Team Six’s Red Squadron rehearsed for months for a plan that would require the Navy to slip a nuclear-powered submarine into North Korean waters, alongside two mini-subs of SEALs who would motor along the shore before swimming to the target to install the electronic device.
The SEAL Team Six, which is a secretive US military unit formed in 1980, has worked on a range of secret, dangerous and high-risk missions, including carrying out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
The Times reports when a North Korean boat, which evidence later suggested were two or three North Korean civilians diving for shellfish, approached in the water during the operation, the SEALs opened fire and killed them. The report also states the Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress.
The relationship between the United States and North Korea, a country that is highly isolated, has been rocky over the years. Trump issued an ultimatum to North Korea in 2017 to not make any more threats against the US or they will “face fire and fury like the world has never seen.” His warning came as US intelligence analysts assessed North Korea had produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead at the time.
Kim and Trump would go on to exchange a series of flatteries and letters in 2018 and 2019 after the significant tensions in 2017. They then would participate in a series of unprecedented summits in 2018 with fulsome declarations of a new friendship but vague pledges of nuclear disarmament.
In 2019, Trump would make history as the first sitting US leader to set foot in the hermit kingdom, when he shook hands with Kim and took 20 steps into North Korea. Biden’s administration, meanwhile, would take a different strategy, CNN reported at the time, focused on shows of strength and unity with South Korea as well as incremental progress toward denuclearization.
This story has been updated with additional information.
