Sue Mi Terry, a North Korea expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, was charged with acting as an agent for Seoul after leaving the intelligence agency.
Sue Mi Terry, a prominent voice on American foreign policy, had a refined palate, a love for top-shelf sushi and a taste for designer labels. She liked coats by Christian Dior, handbags by Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton, and Michelin-starred restaurants.
And, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, she accepted such luxury goods and other gifts in exchange for serving the South Korean government in Seoul.
Ms. Terry, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, is accused in a 31-page indictment released Tuesday of a yearslong effort to assist South Korean spies. The indictment says she even introduced the spies to congressional staff members, an action that she described as “bringing the wolf in.”
The charges, which were brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, were part of a concerted push by the Justice Department to combat foreign influence in American affairs, which has produced dozens of prosecutions in recent years. Such cases have been set off by illegal campaign contributions from overseas, covert influence operations and even the bribing of Senator Robert Menendez, for which he was convicted Tuesday.
In Ms. Terry’s case, prosecutors say she began operating as a foreign agent in 2013, five years after leaving the C.I.A. She was first contacted by an intelligence officer posing as a diplomat for the Korean mission to the United Nations in New York City, the indictment said, and in return for her work over the next decade, Ms. Terry received handbags, clothing and at least $37,000 in covert payments to the think tank where she was employed at the time.
“Despite engaging in extensive activities for and at the direction of” the South Korean government, Ms. Terry did not register as a foreign agent with American officials, as required by law, prosecutors said. She faces two counts, one for failing to register under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the other for conspiring to violate it.
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