US Indicts North Korea Expert Sumi Terry... "Received Money and Acted as Agent for Korean Government"

Attorney Sumi Terry Denies Charges

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 16th (local time), the U.S. federal prosecutors indicted Sumi Terry (Korean name Kim Sumi), a North Korea expert and former CIA officer, on charges of acting as an agent for the South Korean government.

The New York Times (NYT), citing a 31-page indictment from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, reported that Sumi Terry, a Korean-American senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), is accused of working on behalf of the South Korean government in exchange for luxury handbags, dinners, and other benefits. Sumi Terry is a widely known U.S. expert on North Korea in both South Korea and the United States. A Korean-American immigrant, she grew up in Hawaii and Virginia and earned a Ph.D. in International Relations from Tufts University in Boston.

According to the indictment, she worked at the CIA from 2001 until her retirement in 2008, and from June 2013, she began acting as an agent for the South Korean government. Sumi Terry first met with a person introduced as a counselor at the South Korean Mission to the United Nations, and over the next decade, she reportedly received Louis Vuitton handbags, Dolce & Gabbana coats, dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, and at least $37,000 in kickbacks.

During this period, she appeared in or contributed to U.S. and South Korean media to advocate for South Korean government policies, including a 2014 NYT editorial, the newspaper reported. Sumi Terry also testified three times before U.S. congressional hearings, where she was required to swear that she was not a registered agent of a foreign government, the newspaper added.

Sumi Terry’s attorney is reported to have strongly denied these allegations.

Sumi Terry worked as an East Asia analyst at the CIA from 2001, served as the Korea, Japan, and Oceania director at the White House National Security Council (NSC) in 2008, and held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian Intelligence. In March of this year, she was appointed as a senior fellow at CFR, reaffirming her expertise, and remained actively engaged with South Korea, including attending the Jeju Forum held in May.