Former CIA analyst charged with being South Korea's 'secret agent'

Indictment says Sue Mi Terry received luxury handbags and dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants in exchange.

United States prosecutors have charged a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for allegedly working for South Korea in exchange for luxury gifts, according to the US Department of Justice.

Sue Mi Terry, who worked for the US government from 2001 to 2011, passed on confidential information to South Korea’s government and lobbied on its behalf, according to the indictment filed on Monday in a New York federal court.

She allegedly began the “secret agent” role in 2013, two years after she left US government employment, and continued it for a decade.

In exchange, Terry was treated to meals at Michelin-starred restaurants and handbags and other items worth thousands of dollars, the indictment said. Her South Korean handlers secretly sent $37,000 to a think tank where she worked for a public policy programme on Korea, according to the charges.

The indictment featured security camera photos of Terry meeting South Korean officials in Washington, DC, to be gifted items from high-end stores. It said these allegedly included a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag, a $2,950 Bottega Veneta handbag, a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat, as well as other items.

The 31-page indictment said she admitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that she served as a source of information for South Korean intelligence, which included passing handwritten notes from an off-the-record June 2022 meeting she was at with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about government policy on North Korea.

The indictment charges Terry with failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiring to violate that law.

“Despite engaging in extensive activities for and at the direction of South Korea’s government, Terry failed to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department as required,” the prosecutors said.

Terry’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, denied the charges, saying they were “unfounded” and “distort” the work she did as an independent scholar and analyst.

“In fact, she was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during times this indictment alleges that she was acting on its behalf,” said Wolosky. “Once the facts are made clear it will be evident the government made a significant mistake.”

South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said it was in contact with its US counterpart regarding the indictment.

According to the indictment, Terry is a naturalised US citizen who was born in the South Korean capital, Seoul, and raised in Virginia and Hawaii.

In her time in government, Terry also worked as the deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council, before moving on to think tanks, including the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Council on Foreign Relations put Terry on unpaid administrative leave, and will cooperate with any investigation, a spokesperson told the Reuters news agency.