Former CIA analyst accused of spying for South Korea

Sue Mi Terry allegedly provided classified information to South Korea in return for luxury gifts, US prosecutors have said.

A former CIA analyst has been indicted on charges of serving as a spy for South Korea’s intelligence service in exchange for luxury goods and dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants.

Sue Mi Terry, a prominent expert on North Korea who worked on the National Security Council (NSC), began acting as a foreign agent in 2013, according to an indictment released by a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.

US prosecutors claim that over the next decade she was contacted by an unnamed “handler” on “multiple occasions.”

Terry advocated South Korean policy positions, disclosed non-public US government information to South Korean intelligence officers, and facilitated access for South Korean government officials to their American counterparts, the federal filing stated.

In return, Seoul “repeatedly rewarded” Terry for her work with lavish goods, including a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag, a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat and dinners at Michelin star restaurants. The former analyst also received at least $37,000 in “covert” funding to the think tank she ran, and was paid to write opinion articles that advocated South Korean policy, the filing claims.

Born in Seoul and raised in the US, Terry was a senior CIA analyst from 2001 to 2008, and director of Korean, Japan and Oceanic Affairs at the NSC from 2008 to 2009 under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

In an interview with the FBI in 2023 Terry admitted that she had resigned from the CIA because the agency had “problems” with her contacts with members of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the indictment said.

The filing includes surveillance camera images of Terry meeting with South Korean officials who prosecutors allege served as her “handlers” for Seoul’s intelligence service. One of the photos allegedly shows an agent shopping for a Louis Vuitton handbag with Terry in a Washington store and the two of them departing together, with the agent carrying it in a shopping bag.

The prosecution claimed Terry acted as a “valuable source” of information for the South Korean government.

In 2022, Terry reportedly participated in a closed-door North Korea policy briefing with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. After the meeting, she passed her handler “detailed handwritten notes” that described the contents of the briefing, the filing says.

“Despite engaging in extensive activities for and at the direction of” the South Korean government, Terry failed to register as a foreign agent, as required by US law, prosecutors said. She faces two counts, one for failing to register under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act, and another for conspiring to violate it.