Federal prosecutors say former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry knew that money bankrolling her salary at a Washington think tank was coming directly from the top leadership of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, and that she worked to hide where the cash originated. The claim surfaced in a court filing dated September 28 and reported October 11, as Terry's long-running foreign agent case barrels toward a jury trial later this month.
According to Chosunbiz, U.S. prosecutors filed a brief on September 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York opposing Terry's motion to suppress evidence, with the filing reported by the court on October 11. In it, prosecutors said Terry knew that NIS financial support directly contributed to her salary and came from the agency's top leadership, and that she sought to conceal the source of those funds from the Woodrow Wilson Center, where she was employed at the time. Prosecutors characterized the evidence as directly bearing on her intent to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the filing also named three NIS handlers who had contact with Terry, releasing photographs of the agents as part of the indictment.
Terry, a Korean American expert on North Korea and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, was indicted in July 2024 on charges of violating FARA for allegedly working on behalf of the South Korean government without notifying U.S. authorities. The Department of Justice's original indictment, detailed by the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged she received luxury goods, including clothing and handbags, and meals from South Korean intelligence handlers. Chosunbiz's reporting adds that prosecutors allege Terry received fine meals, expensive clothing, handbags and substantial research funds from the NIS and others over more than a decade.
A Private Blinken Meeting And Handwritten Notes
Court filings described by AP News allege that during a voluntary FBI interview in June 2023, Terry admitted to passing handwritten notes to South Korean intelligence officers from a private, off-the-record June 2022 meeting on North Korea policy with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. That episode has become a central thread in prosecutors' argument that her exchanges with Korean officials went well beyond the routine professional contact typical of a policy analyst's work.
Terry's defense has pushed back hard on that framing. Per Chosunbiz, her legal team says her contacts with Korean government officials amounted to routine professional interactions consistent with her role as a North Korea and Korean Peninsula policy expert, and argues prosecutors have wrongly cast those contacts as evidence of a FARA violation. The case is being heard by Judge Lorna G. Schofield, with a jury trial scheduled for October 27.
A Documented History Of Federal Warnings
This is not the first time Terry's ties to South Korean intelligence have drawn federal scrutiny. The Washington Post, cited by intelnews.org, reported that Terry resigned from the CIA in 2008 “in lieu of termination” following internal agency concerns over her contacts with South Korean intelligence during her tenure as a CIA East Asia analyst from 2001 to 2008. FBI agents later explicitly warned her in November 2014 that NIS officers might attempt to approach her, according to the same reporting.
The fallout from her 2024 arrest was swift. The Council on Foreign Relations placed Terry on unpaid administrative leave from her post as senior fellow for Korea studies immediately after her arrest, and she subsequently resigned from the organization. She was released on a $500,000 bond following her initial court appearance in Manhattan, co-signed by her husband, Washington Post columnist and foreign policy author Max Boot, as reported by Inner City Press.
Fallout Reached Seoul's Intelligence Service
The indictment also triggered consequences inside South Korea's government. The Chosun Daily reported that following Terry's indictment, the National Intelligence Service opened an internal probe that resulted in an active second-tier intelligence official being relieved of duty and another overseas handler being recalled, after three NIS handlers operating under diplomatic cover were identified in the case.
What's At Stake Under FARA
The Foreign Agents Registration Act is the law at the center of the case, and prosecutors allege Terry willfully violated it.
The case has also become a flashpoint for press freedom advocates. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an amicus brief in March 2025 supporting Terry's motion to dismiss, arguing that sweeping criminal application of FARA to scholar and reporter interactions with foreign sources threatens First Amendment rights and chills legitimate policy analysis. Terry has separately filed motions challenging the criminal application of FARA on vagueness grounds.
The legal fight is unfolding against a broader shift in how the Justice Department approaches foreign agent enforcement. At a December 2024 forum, the department's National Security Division reported that active FARA registrations had exceeded 500 for a sixth consecutive year, while the FARA Unit conducted 26 organizational inspections in 2024, its highest single-year total since 1977, according to the American Conference Institute. But Responsible Statecraft reported that in early 2025, Justice Department guidance issued under Attorney General Pam Bondi directed prosecutors to narrow criminal FARA enforcement strictly to conduct resembling traditional foreign espionage, while disbanding specialized foreign influence enforcement units.
With trial now set for October 27, the case will test how a jury weighs years of luxury gifts, research funding and alleged concealment against a defense built on the premise that engaging foreign officials is simply part of the job for a North Korea policy expert.
