Sue Mi Terry, 54, of New York, New York, was arrested yesterday and presented on criminal charges related to offences under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
According to court documents, after leaving U.S. government service and for more than a decade, Terry worked as an agent of South Korea without registering as a foreign agent with the Attorney General as required by law.
As covertly directed by South Korean government officials, Terry publicly advocated South Korea’s policy positions, disclosed non-public U.S. government information to South Korean intelligence officers and enabled that country’s officials to gain access to U.S. government officials.
In exchange for these actions, South Korean intelligence officers provided Terry with luxury goods, expensive dinners and more than $37,000 in funding for a public policy program focusing on Korean affairs that Terry controlled.
From or about 2001 to 2011, Terry served in a series of positions in the U.S. government, including as an analyst on East Asian issues for the Central Intelligence Agency, as the Director for Korea, Japan and Oceanic Affairs for the White House National Security Council and as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council.
Since leaving government service in or about 2011, Terry has worked at academic institutions and think tanks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Terry has made media appearances, published articles and hosted conferences as a policy expert specialising in, among other things, South Korea, North Korea and various regional issues impacting Asia.
Terry has also testified before Congress on at least three occasions regarding the U.S. government’s policy toward Korea.
As she admitted in a voluntary interview with the FBI in 2023, Terry served as a valuable “source” of information for the South Korean National Intelligence Service, the primary intelligence agency for South Korea. For example, in or about June 2022, Terry participated in a private, off-the-record group meeting with a U.S. secretary level official regarding the U.S. Ggovernment’s policy toward North Korea.
Immediately after the meeting, Terry’s primary South Korean NIS point of contact, or handler, picked up Terry in a car with South Korean Embassy diplomatic plates. While in the car, Terry passed her handler detailed handwritten notes of her meeting, which were written on the letterhead of a think tank where Terry had recently worked. Terry’s handler then photographed the notes while still sitting in the car with Terry.
Weeks later, at the request of her South Korean NIS handler, Terry hosted a happy hour for Congressional staff. Although the happy hour was ostensibly on behalf of the think tank where Terry worked, the South Korean NIS paid for it with Terry’s knowledge. Terry’s handler attended the event and posed as a diplomat, mingling with Congressional staff without disclosing that he was, in fact, a South Korean intelligence officer.
South Korean government rewarded Terry for her services. For example, Terry’s South Korean NIS handlers gifted her a $2,950 Bottega Veneta handbag and a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag, both of which Terry selected during shopping trips with her handlers. One of Terry’s South Korean NIS handlers also gifted her a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat. In addition to luxury goods, Terry’s South Korean NIS handlers provided her expensive meals, including at Michelin-starred restaurants.
Terry’s South Korean NIS handlers also deposited approximately $37,000 into an unrestricted “gift” account that Terry controlled at the think tank where she worked. In addition, South Korean government officials paid Terry to write articles in both the U.S. and Korean press conveying positions and phrases dictated by the South Korean government.
Terry is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate FARA and one count of failure to register under FARA. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence if convicted after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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