US Secret Mission In North Korea Reportedly Failed, Civilians Killed

JAKARTA - Media reports revealed the failure of a secret US mission in North Korea (North Korea) during President Donald Trump's first term of office.

The secret mission involved the elite US Navy force, the Navy SEAL, to install communications eavesdropper for North Korean leader KimJong Un.

However, the operation failed and killed a number of North Korean unarmed civilians, The New York Times (NYT) reported.

Citing several sources, NYT said the secret mission was carried out by the Red Squadron Team SEAL 6, elite troops that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

Details of the SEAL operation in early 2019 were obtained by NYT via conversation with a number of US civil government officials, members of Trump's first-term cabinet, as well as active personnel and retired military personnel, who asked for their names to be kept secret.

Reported by ANTARA, according to the daily report, despite months of training, the elite forces faced an unexpected situation on the ground.

While in the North Korean region, a ship suddenly appeared. It is unclear whether it was a military ship or a fishing boat. The entire crew of the ship was shot dead, but it was later discovered they were unarmed and not uniformed.

The victims, which numbered two or three people, were likely civilians who were diving looking for shells, the NYT report said.

In February of that year, Trump announced that he would meet Kim at a nuclear summit in Vietnam. He wanted to know the true meaning of the North Korean leader which at that time was considered unpredictable.

The device that SEAL was about to install was supposed to help gather important intelligence, but the mission had to be canceled following the shooting incident.

NYT also reported that North Korea had never issued a public statement about the incident, while US officials did not know if North Korea understood what happened and who did it.

But since then, North Korea has continued missile tests and added dozens of nuclear warheads, according to the report.