Washington Post slaps editor's note on opinion pieces written by accused foreign agent for South Korea

The Washington Post placed Editor's Notes on several of its pieces clarifying they were authored by a columnist alleged to be a foreign spy.

The Washington Post placed editor's notes on Thursday atop several opinion articles that were written or co-authored by Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst charged this week with being an unregistered foreign agent for the South Korean government.

"On July 16, a federal indictment was made public alleging that Sue Mi Terry had acted as an unregistered agent of the South Korean government beginning in 2013," the note says atop pieces with Terry's byline. "If true, this is information that would have been pertinent for The Post’s publication decision. Ms. Terry has denied these charges and has asserted through counsel that the allegations in the indictment are unfounded."

Terry, 54, was hit with charges of "failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act" by the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Terry allegedly "subverted foreign agent registration laws in order to provide South Korean intelligence officers with access, information, and advocacy. Terry allegedly sold out her positions and influence to the South Korean government in return for luxury handbags, expensive meals, and thousands of dollars of funding for her public policy program."

A widely quoted expert in the media, Terry is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential think tank, and served on the National Security Council during parts of the Obama and Bush administrations. The suspected foreign agent is the wife of left-wing Washington Post columnist Max Boot, with whom she co-authored multiple Post opinion pieces, as well as authoring several on her own. 

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One of them she co-wrote with Boot, according to the 31-page indictment, was done at the specific behest of the South Korean government, headlined "South Korea takes a brave step toward reconciliation with Japan." The Post editor's note on that article used the same text as the others but added, "The indictment alleged that Terry co-authored this column at the request of a South Korean official."

Published on March 7, 2023, the article contained talking points Terry received from a South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official she texted with questions about relations between South Korea and Japan, according to the indictment.

"The article was broadly consistent with the responses" Kim got from the official, the indictment stated. Terry texted the official, "Hope you liked the article," and she was informed that senior government officials read and appreciated it. Terry and Boot gushed in the piece that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was taking courageous action by trying to improve relations with Japan despite domestic pressures.

Fox News Digital counted nine opinion pieces Terry either wrote or co-authored that had editor's notes placed on them Thursday, including one published May 27 headlined, "This nascent trilateral relationship is the best possible answer to China."

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Reached for comment, a Washington Post spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The Washington Post is committed to publishing independent journalism and is reviewing the indictment. We do not have further comment."

The indictment also laid out examples of Terry getting paid to publish articles in Foreign Affairs, a magazine published by the Council on Foreign Relations. Foreign Affairs also added editor's notes to her articles, which said, "Foreign Affairs requires all contributors to disclose any affiliation or activity that could present a genuine or perceived conflict of interest or call into question the integrity of their work. We take these allegations very seriously."

The indictment stated her 2014 Foreign Affairs piece, "A Korea Whole and Free: Why Unifying the Peninsula Won't Be So Bad After All" was done for pay by the South Korean government, but she didn't disclose her financial incentive to readers. 

Terry’s indictment alleged that she admitted to FBI agents just over a year ago that she was a "source" for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). It also said she resigned from the CIA in 2008, in lieu of being fired, because the agency was concerned about her contacts with South Korean intelligence agents.

Terry accepted luxury gifts, including handbags, expensive meals at sushi restaurants and $37,000 of funding for her public policy program on Korean affairs in exchange for pushing South Korean government positions during media appearances, sharing private information with intelligence officers and facilitating meetings to allow South Korean officials to be granted access to U.S. officials, the Justice Department said in the indictment.

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Additionally, the indictment described her dining with and receiving gifts from NIS personnel over the years. In exchange, she was alleged to have given these individuals information about people in the U.S. government. She was also accused of inviting congressional staffers out for drinks, where they would meet and be evaluated by NIS agents.

Terry, who was born in Seoul and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, has since denied the charges. A statement from her lawyer said, "These allegations are unfounded and distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States."

The Council on Foreign Relations placed Terry on unpaid administrative leave following the indictment. A CFR spokesperson told The Post that the think tank "will cooperate with any investigation."

Terry's husband Boot, an ex-Republican known for being a rabid critic of Donald Trump, was an enthusiastic proponent of Russiagate and claimed the former president could be a Russian agent. One of his most infamous pieces was a 2019 column he discussed on CNN titled, "Here are 18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset."

In 2020, Boot posted on his X account that then-Trump national intelligence director Richard Grenell had possibly violated FARA "by concealing work on behalf of foreign governments and entities." 

Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this report.