Inside the Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission North Korea Doesn’t Want You to Know About

It’s no secret that North Korea and the U.S. have long had a strained relationship. The country, run by Kim Jong Un, has kept its nuclear program, and its intentions with it, under wraps.

While the U.S. has tried to “play nice,” the potential power and threat North Korea poses to the “land of the free” is just too risky to leave alone. And so, the U.S. has done anything but ignore it.

According to The New York Times, President Donald Trump’s administration greenlit a top-secret mission to enter North Korea undetected and “intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader.” SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron, famous for killing Osama bin Laden, was reportedly chosen to carry it out.

While neither the U.S. nor North Korea has spoken on the operation, The New York Times is the first to share information on it.

Here’s what allegedly happened with SEAL Team 6 in North Korea.

It all went down during Donald Trump’s first term as president, in early 2019. On Sept. 5, 2025, The New York Times divulged details from the alleged secret mission for the first time, revealing some shocking claims, if true.

According to the outlet, the mission was meant to give the U.S. an edge over North Korea, especially as its nuclear inventory continued to grow. The goal was to get intelligence directly from Kim Jong Un, without him or anyone in North Korea knowing.

As the NYT put it, “Gaining insight into Mr. Kim’s thinking became a high priority when Mr. Trump first took office.”

The operation, which took months of rehearsals, was assigned to SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron. They were tasked with getting onto a North Korean shore and planting a listening device to gather insight into Kim’s intentions, particularly regarding his nuclear arsenal. While the SEALs successfully reached the shore, a North Korean boat appeared.

Assuming they had been spotted, the SEALs fired at it, killing everyone on board. Had they been spotted, it could have triggered a hostage situation or severe retaliation from North Korea, and the team couldn’t take that risk. Needless to say, they didn’t plant the device.

Now, according to the NYT, neither the U.S. nor North Korea has commented on the mission, and it’s unclear how much North Korea knows. The outlet spoke with about two dozen people familiar with the operation, including government officials, members of Trump’s first administration, and current and former military personnel.

Among some of the other details disclosed by the outlet include that SEAL Team 6 partnered with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1, the Navy’s underwater unit, and approached North Korea aboard a nuclear-powered submarine.

Two mini-subs were launched near the coast, operating “in the dead of night in winter” to avoid being spotted. However, a North Korean boat disrupted their plans. As it turns out, though, the people on board were just three civilians “diving for shellfish.” Meanwhile, all the SEALs returned safely, and many were later promoted.

This is certainly a debatable question, especially since some of the details are pretty intrusive in terms of government affairs. But according to The New York Times, the sources the outlet spoke with shared the information because “they were concerned that Special Operations failures are often hidden by government secrecy.”

They added that if only the wins are disclosed, “they may underestimate the extreme risks that American forces undertake.” Perhaps the reasons run even deeper, though, and might require further digging.