Trump says that he does not know ‘nothing’ about the violent and failed mission of the Seal 6 team in North Korea
President Donald Trump said Friday that he knew “nothing” about what the New York Times reported was a classified mission of Seal 69 Team 6 in North Korea in which unarmed North Korean civilians were killed during an aborted operation.
The Pentagon and USA special operations command declined to comment to ABC News about The New York Times report.
A Navy Seal carries out a recognition of a Hawk MH-60s helicopter.
First class mass communication specialist Scott Fenaroli/US Navy
ABC News has not confirmed the details in the report.
Speaking to the journalists of the Oval office on Friday, a reporter asked Trump: “Can you confirm what happened?”
“I don’t know anything about it. I hear it for the first time,” he replied.
The account, citing “two dozen people, including civil government officials, members of the first Trump administration and current military personnel with knowledge of the mission” who spoke with the Times anonymously, said Trump had approved the mission.
The Seal 6 team commands, according to the Times, were to plant a device that “would let the United States intercept the communications of the lone leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in the midst of high-level nuclear conversations with President Trump.”
The members of the American team feared that they would have been seen by a North Korea boat that approached the area, the Times reported. The stamps opened fire, killing everyone aboard the boat, according to the Times.
After the inspection, none of the people in the boat was armed, the Times reported, and the evidence “suggested that the crew, that people informed about the mission said they numbered two or three people, had been civilians who dive into seafood.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Una Donald Trump within the demilitarized area (DMZ) that separates the South and North Korea on June 30, 2019 in Panmunjom, South Korea.
Dong-a Ilbo through Getty Images
The seals returned to their large nuclear energy submarine near and fled from the North Korean coast without being detected, according to The Times.
No one in the Trump administration informed the Congress of the failed mission, said the account.
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith, Anne Flaherty and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
