A former CIA employee and senior National Security Council official has been charged, that he was a secret agent of South Korean intelligence, the US Department of Justice announced, as quoted by the Associated Press, writes BTA.
According to the indictment filed in Manhattan federal court, Sue Mi Terry accepted luxury goods, including expensive handbags, and expensive dinners at sushi restaurants in exchange for defending the South Korean government's positions during media appearances , shared non-public information with intelligence officials and facilitated access by South Korean officials to US government officials.
She has also admitted to the FBI that she served as a source of information for South Korean intelligence, including handing over handwritten notes of an informal June 2022 meeting she had with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about U.S. foreign policy. government toward North Korea, the indictment says.
Prosecutors say South Korean intelligence agents also secretly paid her more than $37,000 for a public policy program Terry controlled focused on Korean affairs.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service said today that intelligence agencies in South Korea and the United States are in constant contact regarding the case. South Korea's foreign ministry said separately that it was not appropriate to comment on a case pending in another country.
The acts in question were committed in the years after Terry left the US government and worked at think tanks, where he became a prominent foreign policy expert.
Lee Wolosky, Terry's attorney, said in a statement that "the allegations are baseless and distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for his independence and long service to the United States.
Terry worked for the government from 2001 to 2011, first as an analyst at the CIA and then as deputy director of national intelligence for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council, after which she worked at think tanks including Council on International Relations.