Sue Mi Terry / Yonhap

The indictment of Sue Mi Terry last week has sent shockwaves through Washington's Korea-watching community. As a respected North Korea expert and former CIA analyst, her alleged role as an unregistered agent for South Korea's spy agency has triggered the biggest scandal in this field in years.

This case offers a glimpse into the tangled relationships within Washington's foreign policy establishment, while also raising concerns about South Korea's efforts to influence U.S. politics and the possibility of U.S. spying on the Korean Embassy.

Terry is a beneficiary of the revolving door that shuffles former government officials into jobs at leading U.S. think tanks. Her career began as a North Korea analyst at the CIA before moving to the National Security Council at the White House during the George W. Bush administration and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the early years of the Obama administration.

Leaving government service in 2010, she held an academic post at Columbia University as well as working for a consultancy firm before joining the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2017 and the Wilson Center in 2022. This year, she moved to the Council on Foreign Relations, where her husband, Max Boot, a conservative foreign policy commentator and a Washington Post columnist, is a senior fellow.

Her role at leading think tanks made her a go-to commentator for the U.S. media on Korean issues and she was a regular talking head on U.S. news programs. Her background meant she was a reliable promoter of the hawkish views of America's national security establishment. It was during this period that Terry allegedly became involved in Seoul's influence operations in Washington. She has denied accusations that she acted improperly.

The alleged recruitment of Terry by Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) would have been regarded as quite a catch because of her prominent media role and her access to officials setting U.S. policy on the two Koreas.

Given the importance of the security alliance with the U.S., Seoul has always been concerned about political developments in Washington that could impact this relationship. South Korea is one of the top lobbyists in Washington. It views U.S. think tanks as a source of both information and as a way to influence decision makers.

These influence operations are supposed to be regulated by the Foreign Agent Regulatory Act (FARA), established in 1938 to combat Nazi propaganda, which identifies those working on behalf of foreign governments. Terry is accused of violating FARA by not disclosing her alleged links with the NIS.

Seoul has resorted to illegal operations at times. The most famous incident is the Koreagate scandal in 1976, when it was disclosed that the South Korean CIA, as it was known at the time, had conducted a secret influence campaign using bribery to persuade members of the U.S. Congress to block President Jimmy Carter from withdrawing U.S. troops. In 1996, Robert Kim, a U.S. naval intelligence analyst, was arrested and convicted for handing over classified documents to Seoul.

Given this history, it would not be surprising that U.S. security agencies, especially the FBI's counter-espionage unit, would have kept tabs on NIS agents working out of the South Korean Embassy. This surveillance could have led to exposing Terry's alleged association with Seoul's spy agency. The U.S. government indictment against Terry suggests that she may have been tracked by U.S. agents for as long as 15 years.

Terry admitted to FBI investigators that she had resigned from the CIA in 2008 to avoid being fired over the agency's concerns about her contacts with NIS agents, although this did not prevent her from landing a job at the White House. The indictment is supported by recent surveillance photographs showing Terry shopping for luxury goods with NIS agents, who bought these items for her.

A lingering question is why the FBI would spend so much time and money on such an extensive operation against Terry, especially since her activities — like facilitating access to U.S. officials and promoting Seoul's message through media contacts — don't seem to justify such a large-scale surveillance effort.

One answer may be that the FBI believes that Seoul's influence operations may reach further into the U.S. government. The indictment alleges that Terry talked with an NIS source about "her close relationship with a senior State Department official with responsibilities covering Korean affairs who had previously served in senior roles at the CIA and at the National Intelligence Council." This description seems to fit Jung Pak, the top U.S. official for North Korea policy, who suddenly resigned two weeks ago after only a year in the position.

Terry's indictment comes at an awkward time for the Seoul government when it is scrambling to obtain as much information as possible about South Korea policy under a possible second Trump administration. Many in Washington will now be reluctant to share their views with South Korean officials.

John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant. He is a guest editorial writer of The Korea Times.