Former CIA analyst charged with working as foreign agent for South Korea

The U.S. Southern District of New York announced an indictment against Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and foreign policy specialist, for working as an unregistered agent for the South Korean government. 

According to the indictment, Terry received more than $37,000 in covert funding for a public policy program focusing on Korean affairs and also received high-priced dinners and other luxury goods, including a $2,845 Dolce and Gabbana coat and a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag. 

She faces two counts of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. 

“At the direction of ROK government officials, Terry advocated ROK policy positions, including in published articles and during media appearances, disclosed nonpublic U.S. government information to ROK intelligence officers and facilitated access for ROK government officials to U.S. government officials,” the indictment reads, using an abbreviation for Republic of Korea (ROK). 

Terry is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Seoul. She received a PhD from Tufts University and is currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Her lawyer, Lee Wolosky, told Reuters that “these 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.” 

From 2001 to 2011, Terry served in a series of positions in the government, including at the CIA and the White House National Security Council. 

According to the indictment, Terry told the FBI in 2023 that she resigned from the CIA instead of being terminated after the agency raised concerns about her contact with intelligence officers of the South Korean government. 

The U.S. alleges that a South Korean official first approached Terry in 2013 to act as an agent for the country. 

She told colleagues South Korea paid her to publish articles in American papers. She noted that she was a former CIA analyst in the articles but did not disclose that a foreign government had paid her. 

The FBI interviewed Terry in 2014. She told them that she had been approached but did not provide more details, and she told the FBI that she would tell them if a South Korean official reached out again. 

Between 2016 and 2022, Terry testified before Congress, failing to disclose that she had received gifts and money from a foreign government as required by Congress’s truth in testimony disclosures. 

In 2016, she also worked to provide South Korean government officials access to incoming members of the Trump administration without disclosing that the South Korean government had directed her to do so. 

In 2018 and 2019, Terry arranged private meetings with U.S. national security officials and received designer handbags as a reward. She facilitated similar meetings from 2020 to 2022 and received expensive meals and gifts as rewards. 

The government also alleges that in 2022, Terry provided notes of a private group meeting with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to South Korea. 

In 2023, during an interview with the FBI, Terry also acknowledged that she was a source for South Korea’s intelligence agencies. 

The Council on Foreign Relations, the South Korean government and the National Security Council were not immediately available for comment.