US Navy SEALs killed several North Korean fishermen after encountering them by accident during a botched mission, US news outlet reports.Published On 6 Sep 20256 Sep 2025United States Navy SEALs shot and killed several North Korean civilians during a botched mission in 2019 to plant a listening device in the nuclear-armed country, reportedly approved by US President Donald Trump, a leading US news outlet reports.The New York Times reported on Friday that the classified mission was carried out by the US Navy’s SEAL Team 6 during high-stakes diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang in early 2019.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe elite special forces unit – the same one that killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 – was tasked with covertly going ashore in North Korea and planting a listening device to spy on the country’s leadership.But working in the dead of night with blackout communications, a series of errors led to civilians – several North Koreans reportedly diving for shellfish – inadvertently coming across the US special forces as they splashed ashore.The SEALs opened fire, killing all those on board a small fishing vessel, the Times report said, without specifying the number of casualties.Officials familiar with the mission told the Times that the US soldiers “pulled the bodies into the water to hide them from the North Korean authorities”. One source described how SEAL members “punctured the boat crew’s lungs with knives to make sure their bodies would sink”.The Times said it gained knowledge of the botched mission through interviews with dozens of people, “including civilian government officials, members of the …
