MEDFORD — Sue Mi Terry, a former Tufts professor and ex-CIA analyst, has been indicted for allegedly working as a secret agent for South Korean intelligence. Prosecutors claim that Terry provided confidential U.S. government information to South Korean spies for over a decade in exchange for luxury goods and nearly $37,000 in funding for a public policy program she controlled.
Terry, a graduate of the Fletcher School, taught a class on U.S. intelligence and foreign policy at Tufts in spring 2022. The indictment, filed by a New York grand jury on July 17, alleges that Terry served as a “valuable source of information” for South Korea starting in 2013, after she left her role in the U.S. government. She is accused of advocating South Korean policy positions in the media and facilitating contacts between South Korean spies and U.S. officials.
According to The Tufts Daily, some of the rewards Terry allegedly received from South Korean officials for her services were a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat, a $2,950 Bottega Veneta handbag, and Michelin-starred meals. She was also given $37,000 for a public policy program focused on South Korean affairs.
In June 2022, Terry reportedly provided a South Korean official with notes from a private meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on U.S. policy toward North Korea. Shortly after, South Korean officials paid for her to organize a “happy hour” event, allowing spies posing as diplomats to meet with congressional staff members.
“Terry later told FBI agents that … providing [spies] with access to these Congressional staffers was like ‘bringing the wolf in,’” the indictment states.
Terry’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, has dismissed the charges as baseless, arguing that the allegations “distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States.”
Terry, a recognized expert on U.S.-Korea relations, previously worked as an East Asia analyst for the CIA and served on the National Security Council under Presidents Obama and Bush. She left government service in 2011 to work at political think tanks.
She now faces two felony charges: failing to register under the Foreign Agents Restriction Act (FARA) and conspiring to violate the act. The Council on Foreign Relations, where Terry has been a Senior Fellow for Korea Studies since March, has placed her on administrative leave.
Tufts University declined to comment on the charges to The Tufts Daily.
