Seoul open to investigating Moon Jae In government after US charges against alleged “foreign agent”

US accuses former CIA analyst of acting as secret agent to push South Korea’s political positions

Jul 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –

South Korean authorities have raised the possibility of an investigation into the actions of the previous administration of former President Moon Jae In (2017-2022) after it became known yesterday that the United States had accused former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst Sue Mi Terry of secretly working for Seoul.

“If we were to inspect or reprimand anyone, we would have to inspect or reprimand the Moon Jae In administration,” a senior South Korean presidential official told reporters when asked about Terry’s case, Yonhap news agency reported.

The same source regretted that when Moon became President of South Korea, he suspended the main agents of the National Intelligence Service and replaced them with “amateurs.” At the same time, he acknowledged that there are images of the aforementioned Terry leaving a luxury store with a South Korean intelligence agent.

A New York jury on Wednesday charged Terry with secretly working for the South Korean government in exchange for luxury items and up to $37,000 (just under 34,000 euros). The former CIA analyst is alleged to have first acted as a foreign agent in June 2019, when she met on “multiple occasions” with a South Korean government contact.

Under orders from South Korean authorities, Terry allegedly “defended Seoul’s political positions” by publishing articles and appearing in media outlets in exchange for around $37,000 paid into the accounts of the think tank where he worked, as well as luxury handbags and coats and even dinners at high-end restaurants.

Terry, a South Korean national who became a U.S. citizen, joined the U.S. administration in 2001. She served as a senior analyst on East Asia issues for the CIA and later served as director of Japan, Korea and Oceania affairs for the Security Council under George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

In June 2013, five years after leaving the CIA, Terry began working as a diplomat for the UN, a period that further strengthened her ties with some of the highest-ranking officials in the South Korean service.