US Navy SEALs killed North Korean civilians during botched mission: Report

A prominent US news outlet reports that US Navy SEALs shot and killed several North Korean civilians in a blundered mission to install a listening device in the nuclear-armed nation in 2019.

The US Navy’s SEAL Team 6 conducted the classified mission, according to The New York Times on Friday during high-stakes diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang in the first half of 2019.

The elite special forces unit, which also killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, was assigned to station a listening device in North Korea to spy on its leaders.

However, a number of errors caused civilians to accidentally come across the US special forces while they splashed ashore while working in the dead of night with blackout communications.

The SEALs opened fire, killing everyone aboard a small fishing boat, according to the Times report, without giving a number of casualties.

According to officials familiar with the mission, US soldiers “pulled the bodies into the water to conceal them from the North Korean authorities.” According to one source, SEAL members “punctured the boat crew’s lungs with knives to ensure their bodies would sink.”

The Times claimed to have been able to learn about the flawed mission from dozens of interviews, including with members of the first Trump administration, current and former military personnel, and former and current military personnel.

Due to the mission’s classified status, none of them spoke on condition of anonymity, according to the news outlet. Many people claimed their decision to provide details was motivated by concern that the US military’s special operations failures are “often hidden by government secrecy.”

According to sources, President Trump gave the mission its final approval during his first year in office.

When reporters on Friday questioned Trump about the report, he denied having any knowledge of the operations.

Trump said, “I could look, but I don’t know anything about [it].”

He claimed that this is the first time he has heard it.

Whether Pyongyang ever pieced together what transpired in 2019 was “uncertain,” according to US officials.