A New York grand jury has indicted a former CIA analyst on prices of spying for the South Korean authorities in trade for money, luxurious items, baggage and gourmand meals.
Sue M. Terry, a former senior official on the White Home Nationwide Safety Council, faces two counts of failure to register as a overseas agent and conspiracy to violate the Overseas Brokers Registration Act.
Federal officers say Ms. Terry, a distinguished U.S. skilled on North Korea, has served as a South Korean authorities agent for greater than a decade, however she didn’t register as a overseas agent with U.S. officers, in response to court docket paperwork launched Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Council on Overseas Relations, a assume tank the place Ms Terry is a senior fellow on Asia, advised US media it had positioned her on unpaid go away. The group additionally eliminated her biography from its web site.
Ms Terry, 54, denies the accusations and her lawyer Lee Wolosky advised the BBC the allegations in opposition to her had been “baseless”.
Wolowski mentioned the costs “misrepresent the work of a scholar and information analyst recognized for his independence and years of service to the US.” “Certainly, she was a harsh critic of the South Korean authorities on the time this indictment alleges that she acted on its behalf.”
Ms. Terry was born in South Korea and moved to the US when she was 12, in response to her former employer at Columbia College.
In 2001, she obtained her PhD from the Fletcher College of Legislation and Diplomacy at Tufts College, a prestigious college of worldwide relations in Massachusetts. She is understood to show in English and Korean.
Ms. Terry, 54, served as a senior analyst on the CIA from 2001 to 2008 after which held numerous positions within the federal authorities, together with serving as director for Korea, Japan and Maritime Affairs on the Nationwide Safety Council from 2001 to 2008. The George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Prosecutors mentioned Ms. Terry started working as a South Korean authorities agent in 2013, about 5 years after she stopped working for the CIA and Nationwide Safety Council.
Within the 31-page indictment, officers mentioned Ms. Terry admitted to FBI brokers throughout a voluntary interview in 2023 that she was an “informant” for South Korea’s Nationwide Intelligence Service.
The South Korean authorities gave Ms Terry a $2,845 (£2,100) Dolce & Gabbana coat, a $3,450 Louis Vuitton purse and meals at high-end eating places, the indictment mentioned.
The federal government additionally gave her $37,000 and devised a plan to cover the supply of the funds, finally depositing them into a present fund on the assume tank the place she labored, officers mentioned.
Ms. Terry’s indictment got here a day after Democratic Senator Robert Menendez was convicted of serving to overseas governments trade for luxurious objects resembling gold bullion and a Mercedes-Benz.
