A former CIA employee and senior official at the US National Security Council has been charged with allegedly serving as a secret agent for the South Korean National Intelligence Service, the US Department of Justice said.
Sue Mi Terry accepted luxury goods, including fancy handbags, and expensive dinners at sushi restaurants in exchange for advocating South Korean government positions during media appearances, sharing nonpublic information with intelligence officers and facilitating access for South Korean officials to US government officials, an indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan, New York, says.
She also admitted to the FBI that she served as a source of information for South Korean intelligence, including by passing handwritten notes from an off-the-record June 2022 meeting that she participated in with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about US government policy toward North Korea, the indictment says.
Photo: Reuters
Prosecutors said South Korean intelligence officers also covertly paid her more than US$37,000 for a public policy program that Terry controlled that was focused on Korean affairs.
The South Korean intelligence service on Wednesday said that intelligence authorities in South Korea and the US are closely communicating over the case.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs separately said it was not appropriate to comment on a case that is under judicial proceedings in a foreign country.
The conduct at issue allegedly occurred in the years after Terry left the US government and worked at think tanks, where she became a prominent public policy voice on foreign affairs.
Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for Terry, said in a statement that the “allegations are unfounded and distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States.”
He said she had not held a security clearance for more than a decade and her views have been consistent.
“In fact, she was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during times this indictment alleges that she was acting on its behalf,” he said. “Once the facts are made clear it will be evident the government made a significant mistake.”
Terry served in the US 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, including the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prosecutors said Terry never registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent.
On disclosure forms filed with the US House of Representatives, where she testified at least three times from 2016 to 2022, she said that she was not an “active registrant,” but also never disclosed her covert work with South Korea, preventing the US Congress from having “the opportunity to fairly evaluate Terry’s testimony in light of her longstanding efforts” for the government, the indictment says.
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