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A former CIA analyst and prominent foreign affairs commentator in the US has been charged with acting as a foreign agent for South Korea, allegedly disclosing information to the country’s intelligence officers in exchange for luxury goods and high-end Manhattan dinners.
Sue Mi Terry, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, was accused in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday of passing on handwritten notes from an off-record meeting about the government’s North Korea policy with US secretary of state Antony Blinken to her South Korean “handler” in 2022.
She was further accused of accepting a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat, a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag and a $2,950 handbag from her handlers, as well as several meals at Michelin-starred restaurants. Terry, a US citizen who was born in South Korea, was also offered $37,000 for her services, prosecutors alleged.
Terry, who has written for several US publications, agreed to write articles for a newspaper and think-tank magazine on topics dictated to her by South Korean officials, prosecutors alleged, in exchange for payment. One such article, published in Foreign Affairs, was entitled “A Korea Whole and Free: Why Unifying the Peninsula Won’t Be So Bad After All”.
Terry is charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, and of failing to disclose her ties to South Korea before testifying in front of Congress on multiple occasions.
While in government, Terry worked as a CIA analyst on east Asia, a director for the National Security Council, and as a deputy national intelligence officer at the National Intelligence Council. Since entering the private sector she has worked for the Wilson Center, where she was the director of the Asia programme, and for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, among other places.
She had left government service in 2011, two years before she allegedly began meeting and communicating regularly with her handler.
Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for Terry, said the allegations were unfounded and “distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States”.
He added that his client “has not held a security clearance for over a decade and her views on matters relating to the Korean peninsula have been consistent over many years. 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 Council for Foreign Relations, which publishes Foreign Affairs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the South Korean embassy in Washington. CSIS declined to comment. The Wilson Center said it was “not a target of the investigation and has co-operated fully with law enforcement authorities”.
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