A former senior official of the White House National Security Council who also once worked as an analyst for the CIA has been indicted on criminal charges accusing her of working as an agent for the government of South Korea allegedly in exchange for luxury gifts including designer handbags.
Sue Mi Terry was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to an indictment made public Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors allege that Terry promoted South Korea’s policy positions, disclosed nonpublic U.S. government information to South Korean intelligence officers, and facilitated access for South Korean government officials to their American counterparts.
In return for her alleged actions, according to the indictment, South Korean intelligence officers lavished her with luxury gifts including a $2,950 Bottega Veneta handbag and another $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag. Her handlers also allegedly bought her a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat and took her to “multiple restaurants with Michelin stars.”
They also provided Terry with “more than $37,000 in covert funding for a public policy program focusing on Korean affairs” which she ran, prosecutors claim.
Security camera images in the indictment purportedly show Terry standing next to one of her handlers in 2021 as he pays for the Louis Vuitton bag in a Washington, D.C., store, while another shows her carrying the Bottega Veneta handbag away from the register after another handler allegedly purchased it for her in 2019.
Terry, 54, began her alleged work for South Korea in 2013, two years after she stopped working for the U.S. government, according to the indictment. Her activities as an agent went on for a decade despite being warned by the FBI in 2014 that South Korean intelligence officers might try to approach her and offer to pay for conferences.
In a voluntary interview with FBI agents last year, Terry admitted she was a “source” for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), “meaning that she provided valuable information” to the intelligence agency, according to the indictment. Prosecutors also say Terry admitted she’d “resigned in lieu of termination” from the CIA because the CIA “had ‘problems’” with her contacts with NIS officers.
The Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank where Terry is a senior fellow and an expert on East Asia and the Korean Peninsula, has placed her on unpaid administrative leave, a spokeswoman told Reuters.
“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,” Lee Wolosky, Terry’s lawyer, said in a statement. “In fact, she was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during times this indictment alleges that she was acting on its behalf. Once the facts are made clear it will be evident the government made a significant mistake.”
The indictment also accuses her of writing opinion pieces at the request of South Korean government officials. “So for me to write an op ed, I need the following information,” she text one South Korean official in March 2023, asking for information about relations between South Korea and Japan.
After receiving detailed responses from the official the next day, an opinion piece Terry co-authored with her Washington Post columnist husband Max Boot appeared on the newspaper’s website. The Post notes the op-ed “did not disclose Korean government involvement.” Boot has not been charged with any crime and did not reply to a request for comment from the Post.
The indictment said the op-ed had been “broadly consistent with the responses” the Korean official had sent to Terry’s questions, according to the indictment. “Hope you liked the article,” Terry texted the official with a link to the piece. “Thank you so much for your zeal and endeavors!” the official replied. “Of course we do. Actually, Ambassador and National Security Advisor were so happy for your column.”
“The Washington Post is committed to publishing independent journalism and is reviewing the indictment. We do not have further comment,” Post spokeswoman Kathy Baird said in response to her reporters’ questions about the matter.
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