A former CIA employee and senior official at the National Security Council, Sue Mi Terry, has been charged with acting as a secret agent for South Korea’s intelligence service, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The indictment, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Terry accepted luxury goods, including high-end handbags and expensive sushi dinners, in exchange for promoting South Korean government positions during media appearances, sharing nonpublic information with intelligence officers, and facilitating access for South Korean officials to U.S. government officials.
Terry admitted to the FBI that she served as an information source for South Korean intelligence. This included passing handwritten notes from an off-the-record June 2022 meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken about U.S. policy toward North Korea, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors also claim that South Korean intelligence officers covertly paid her more than $37,000 for a public policy program she controlled, which focused on Korean affairs.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service stated that South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are in close communication regarding the case. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the case, citing ongoing judicial proceedings in a foreign country.
The alleged conduct occurred after Terry left the U.S. government and worked at think tanks, where she became a prominent public policy voice on foreign affairs. Lee Wolosky, Terry’s lawyer, stated that the allegations are unfounded and misrepresent her work as an independent scholar and news analyst with years of service to the United States.
He noted that she had not held a security clearance for over a decade and her views have remained consistent. Wolosky argued that Terry was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during the periods mentioned in the indictment and believes that the facts will eventually show that the government made a significant mistake.
Terry served in the government from 2001 to 2011, first as a CIA analyst and later as the deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council, before working for think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations. Prosecutors say she never registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent.
In disclosure forms filed with the House of Representatives, where she testified at least three times between 2016 and 2022, Terry stated that she was not an “active registrant” but did not disclose her covert work with South Korea.
This omission prevented Congress from fairly evaluating her testimony in light of her longstanding efforts for the South Korean government, according to the indictment.
