Ex-CIA Analyst Sue Mi Terry Charged with Acting as a Secret Agent for South Korea

Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and senior official at the National Security Council, has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent for South Korea.

The charges, announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, allege that Terry accepted luxury goods, expensive dinners, and substantial funding in exchange for advocating South Korean positions and sharing sensitive information with South Korean intelligence officers.

Sue Mi Terry, 54, who worked for the U.S. government from 2001 to 2011, is accused of beginning her covert activities in 2013.

According to court documents, she received luxury items, including a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat and a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag, as well as dining at upscale restaurants.

In addition to these perks, South Korean intelligence allegedly deposited $37,000 into an account Terry controlled at the think tank where she worked, aimed at supporting a public policy program focused on Korean affairs.

The indictment reveals that she provided South Korean intelligence officers with non-public U.S. government information and facilitated access to U.S. officials.

In one instance, Terry allegedly shared handwritten notes from an off-the-record meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2022. Her actions, prosecutors argue, compromised national security and violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Terry’s indictment includes charges of conspiracy to violate FARA and failure to register as a foreign agent.

If convicted, she faces up to ten years in prison. She has denied all allegations, with her attorney, Lee Wolosky, describing the charges as “unfounded” and asserting that they misrepresent her work as an independent scholar and analyst.

Wolosky emphasized that Terry had not held a security clearance for over a decade and had often criticized the South Korean government, countering the claims that she was acting on its behalf.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where Terry is a senior fellow on Asia, has placed her on unpaid leave and removed her biography from its website. The think tank has pledged to cooperate fully with the investigation.

The case has elicited a strong response from U.S. authorities. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams highlighted the severity of the allegations, stating that Terry’s actions “subverted foreign agent registration laws” and compromised national security.

FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie M. Curtis echoed these sentiments, underscoring the risks posed by such breaches of national security protocols.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has maintained communication with its U.S. counterparts regarding the case but has refrained from commenting on the ongoing judicial proceedings. The charges against Terry come at a time of heightened scrutiny of foreign influence operations in the United States, reinforcing the importance of adherence to FARA regulations.