06.09.2025 01:52
According to the U.S. press, special forces of the U.S. Navy, which conducted a covert landing operation off the coast of North Korea in 2019 under the orders of President Donald Trump, encountered a civilian vessel while on a mission to install listening devices to intercept communications of the country's leader, Kim Jong-un. As a result of the confrontation, the entire crew was killed. The operation failed and was kept secret from the public.
The New York Times (NYT), based in the United States, revealed details of a secret operation during President Donald Trump's first term in a report based on statements from government officials and military personnel.
U.S. NAVY CONDUCTED A SECRET OPERATION IN NORTH KOREA
According to unnamed sources, a special forces unit of the U.S. Navy was tasked with an intelligence operation with Trump's approval just before the Hanoi Summit, which brought together the leaders of Washington and Pyongyang in February 2019.
The special unit, which was supposed to place listening devices to record communications of the country's leader Kim Jong-un, set out in the first weeks of 2019 with a large nuclear submarine and two other smaller submarines after months of rehearsals.
NORTH KOREAN CIVILIANS WERE KILLED
As U.S. soldiers, who were to place the listening device, approached their target, they encountered the lights of an incoming boat on the shore they thought was deserted. Concerned that their plans had been understood by North Korean authorities, the U.S. soldiers opened fire on the boat with the rifles they carried. After the incident, soldiers who boarded the North Korean boat for control found that everyone, including the crew, was dead, but there were no weapons or uniforms with them.
IT FAILED, KEPT SECRET
The operation, in which the listening device could not be placed, has been kept secret from the public. Officials suspect that the Trump administration violated the law by not informing Congress before and after the operation.