https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/us/navy-seal-north-korea-trump-2019.html

So today the New York Times did an expose on how in 2019 during Trump's first term nuclear talks with Kim Jong Un, the navy attempted to plant a listening device with a mission behind DPRK lines using a submarine infiltration, for the purpose of spying on the North Korean side during negotiations. This was pretty similar or even identical to a mission previously carried out under the George W Bush administration, also unrevealed until today. But the 2019 attempt was blown when they encountered North Korean civilian fisherman, and the SEALs opened fire and killed them and aborted their mission. The NYT acknowledges this was top secret and remains classified, and published it anyway based on anonymous tips from 'former military personnel with knowledge of the mission'.

....

There's no whistleblowing here on malfeasance or corruption. The military was engaged in the kind of espionage we expect, and sometimes missions fail or even turn deadly or cause collateral damage, but without Americans dead or any coverup, just a foreign op, there isn't any reason this should have become public. The New York Times gets access to a story which if true, is a very sensitive national security secret dealing with a hostile foreign power, who apparently didn't know these details until the NYT published them.

Do these kinds of stories become newsworthy just because a mission failed, or because civilians in another country died? Is there someone at the NYT making the call whether the public's interest in learning about this outweighs the national security interests in keeping it secret? Even if reporters can get their hands on classified information, should it really be let out? I mean, the Biden administration sent police to raid a journalist's home, arrested and imprisoned him because he had a copy of teenage Ashley Biden's diary leaked to him, and that reporter didn't even publish it because he thought it wasn't newsworthy.

It looks like a political move to discredit or deflect. very short sighted, like everything else.

This post was edited by ferdia on Sep 6 2025 03:46am

If its true its yet another incredibly stupid move by trump which otherwise would have been a landmark in his presidencies which there arent many of.

I think it adds important context to our relationship with North Korea, and offers nuance and empathy to what is otherwise marketed solely as an unreasonable enemy.

Even the NYT with their nonspecific claims say it was almost identical to a mission taken under GWB. And we already know the US spies on all our allies during negotiations, you'd have to figure we spy on hostile powers.
The only real difference is that without any wrongdoing or corruption, the NYT chose to publish a national security secret that puts our country's interests in jeopardy.

I don’t know, but killing civilians in another country, unprovoked, while the US is not actively at war against that country kinda seems like a wrong thing to do.

This is the correct form of thinking for most. But you know others gatta be different with their yikes behavior. Imagine if we did this in russia.

Setting aside the obvious hit piece by NYT on Trump, it's examples like these that really have eroded trust in the 'rule based order' we've been peddling on a international stage for decades.

Imagine a scenario in which Russian or North Korean commandos are trying to do covert ops on some US coastal city and they end up killing a bunch of fishermen. It would be followed by 1. massive international spat, highly publicized 2. reciprocal actions, bombings, sanctions, fill in the blank.

Instead it's a nothing burger only known because orange man bad crowd decided paint Trump in a negative light for the 967th time. For every one of these or the wedding drone, there's probably 50-100 of these ops that happened, in which there was probably collateral damage across the globe that will never come to light.

I definitely do not get what youre going for here. Everyone is better off when the US and russia leave each other alone.

As I said before. Trump trying to improve relations with North Korea is a landmark in his presidency. No one else would even attempt it. And its really too bad it possibly ended up with killing some of thier civilians instead. Orange man very bad indeed. No idea what you guys arent getting about this.

Although I cant even be sure anything is true anymore.