Former CIA official charged with being secret agent for South Korean intelligence
WASHINGTON — A former CIA official and senior National Security Council official has been charged with working as a covert agent for South Korea’s intelligence agency, the Justice Department said.
Sue Mi Terry accepted luxury goods, including expensive handbags, and lavish dinners at sushi restaurants in exchange for advocating South Korean government positions during media appearances, sharing nonpublic information with intelligence officials and facilitating South Korean officials’ access to U.S. government officials, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
She also admitted to the FBI that she served as a source of information for South Korean intelligence, including by passing along handwritten notes from a confidential June 2022 meeting she attended with Secretary of State Antony Blinken about U.S. government policy toward North Korea, the indictment said.
Prosecutors say South Korean intelligence officials also secretly paid her more than $37,000 for a government policy program Terry led that focused on Korean affairs.
The conduct in question occurred in the years after Terry left the U.S. government and went to work at think tanks, where she became a prominent voice on public policy in foreign affairs.
Lee Wolosky, an attorney for Terry, said in a statement that the “allegations are baseless 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 had a security clearance for more than a decade and that her positions were consistent.
“In fact, she was a vocal critic of the South Korean government at the time this indictment alleges she was acting on behalf of the government,” he said. “Once the facts are clear, it will be clear that the government made a significant mistake.”
Terry worked in government from 2001 to 2011, first as a CIA analyst and later as deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council. He then worked for think tanks including the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prosecutors say Terry never registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent.
On disclosure forms filed with the House of Representatives, where she testified at least three times between 2016 and 2022, she said she was not an “active registrant” but also never disclosed her secret work with South Korea, depriving Congress “of the opportunity to fairly evaluate Terry’s testimony in light of her longstanding efforts” for the government, the complaint said.