An explosive New York Times report this month claimed that a U.S. Navy SEAL team slipped onto a North Korean beach under cover of darkness in 2019 to install a listening device, only for the mission to unravel when they encountered civilian fishermen.

But while revelations about the operation have raised fresh questions about the risks Washington is willing to take to gather intel on one of the world’s most secretive regimes, the tactics themselves are far from new.