A grand jury in New York has indicted a well-known North Korea specialist and former CIA analyst on allegations that she surreptitiously worked for the South Korean government in return for designer products, Michelin-starred meals, and $37,000 for a fund she managed.
According to the indictment, which was released on Tuesday, Sue Mi Terry, a former member of the US National Security Council, began acting as a foreign agent in June 2013 when she started meeting with an unidentified “handler” “multiple occasions.”
The indictment claims that Terry “advocated ROK policy positions, including in published articles and during media appearances, at the direction of ROK (Republic of Korea) government officials, disclosed nonpublic US government information to ROK intelligence officers, and facilitated access for ROK government officials to US government officials.”
According to the indictment, South Korean authorities allegedly paid the former analyst about $37,000 in exchange, saying they could hide the money’s source by putting it into a special “gift” account at the think tank where she was employed.
Along with receiving expensive gifts, such as a $3,450 Louis Vuitton purse, a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat, and dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, Terry is also alleged to have been paid to write opinion pieces for American and Korean media outlets endorsing South Korean policy positions.
Terry was employed by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, whose spokeswoman, Iva Zorić, said the senior fellow was put on administrative leave as soon as the organization found out about the prosecution.
According to the indictment, Terry provided the South Korean government with information as a “valuable source.”
Terry once took part in an unrecorded briefing on North Korea policy with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2022. The indictment claims that she gave her handler “detailed handwritten notes” that outlined the information discussed in the closed-door briefing as soon as the meeting concluded.
“The intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are in close communication regarding the indictment related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” a National Intelligence Service spokeswoman for South Korea stated in a statement.
“It is not appropriate to comment on a matter pending in foreign judicial proceedings,” stated a representative for Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a separate statement.
If an American citizen acts in a certain way for or on behalf of a foreign government, they are required by US law to register as foreign agents. According to the indictment, Terry violated the law by failing to register as needed while functioning as a foreign agent.
Terry’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, called the accusations against his client “unfounded” in a statement and mentioned that Terry was a “harsh critic” of the South Korean government when she was purportedly working on its behalf.
According to Wolosky, “it will be evident the (US) government made a significant mistake once the facts are made clear.”
Naturalized US citizen Terry was born in Seoul and started working for the US government in 2001. According to an FBI interview conducted in June 2023, she worked as a prominent CIA expert on East Asian problems before retiring in 2008 in anticipation of a conflict of interest involving her affiliation with the National Intelligence Service of South Korea. Later, under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, she worked for the National Security Council as the director for Japan, Korea, and Oceanic affairs.
Terry further strengthened his relationship with South Korea when, in June 2013, five years after quitting the CIA, he started working as a foreign diplomat for the UN and reported to some of the top authorities in the country.
Terry is no stranger to the media; he has appeared on and in other publications. She has written articles for news organizations in South Korea and the United States. Terry had previously testified before a House hearing about North Korea’s increase of nuclear activity, telling Congress under oath that she had not worked as a foreign agent.
Though Terry’s indictment is not the first instance of suspected cooperation to put the alliance between the two nations to the test, South Korea is a crucial US ally in the Asia-Pacific region. Remarkably detailed private discussions between two senior South Korean national security officials—whom the US reportedly wiretapped—were detailed in internal Pentagon documents that were published last year.
