(Adnkronos) – A secret operation by US Navy Seals, dating back to 2019 and conducted in North Korea, allegedly ended in tragedy, with the killing of several North Korean civilians. The New York Times revealed this, according to which the mission, approved by President Donald Trump in his first term, aimed to install a “micro-spy” to monitor the communications of leader Kim Jong-un during delicate diplomatic negotiations. The highly classified operation was supposed to fill an American intelligence “blind spot” in view of the summit between Trump and Kim scheduled for the same year.
According to military sources cited by the newspaper, the plan went off the rails when a detachment of eight Navy special soldiers, sent aboard a nuclear-powered submarine and then transported by mini-submarines into North Korean waters, encountered local fishermen who were collecting shellfish. Fearing being discovered, the American soldiers opened fire, killing all the civilians on board the small fishing boat. After the incident, the unit abandoned the mission without installing the surveillance device.
Neither Washington nor Pyongyang ever made the operation public, which remains classified. An internal Pentagon review reportedly concluded that the killings were “justified” according to the rules of engagement, but fears of possible “catastrophic retaliation” had already raised concerns at the White House before authorizing the mission. The report emerges in a context of renewed tensions, after Trump recently claimed the killing of 11 alleged drug traffickers in an attack on a boat off Venezuela, while relations with Kim Jong-un remain frozen and the North Korean nuclear program continues unhindered.
