The recent indictment by the US government of former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry on espionage charges smacks of a thrilling Hollywood spy movie.

As an expert on Korean affairs, she allegedly received luxury handbags and expensive meals from the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency. In return, she arranged meetings between officials of Seoul and Washington and provided sensitive US government information to the agency in a bid to influence US policies on the Korean Peninsula.

In a press release, the US Justice Department said “Terry allegedly sold out her positions and influence to the South Korean government” in return for those material gains.

Yet Terry’s own accounts tell a different story. She claims that she maintained her independence and never revealed US secrets to the Korean government since she had no access to them.

She also insists that her positions on Korean affairs were always steadfast and at times clashed with Seoul’s official policies -- a claim Terry is using to prove she was not working for the Korean government. In fact, her opinion pieces for major news media in the US during the administration of President Moon Jae-in were highly critical of his pro-North Korea policy.

“These allegations are unfounded and distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the US government,” her defense attorney told a US newspaper.

The two starkly divergent versions of Terry’s activities beg the question of whether she was involved in espionage or public diplomacy. From the US government's point of view, Terry was influence-peddling and lobbying in Washington on behalf of the Seoul government, for which she should have registered under the Federal Agents Registration Act, a law enacted in 1938 to fight Nazi propaganda. The law clearly stipulates that anyone working for foreign governments should register with the US Justice Department, but Terry failed to do so. As such, her activities are branded as clandestine espionage.

Terry seems to have not registered because she believed her activities were related to the Korean government’s public diplomacy, rather than espionage. Public diplomacy is a type of diplomacy designed to appeal to foreign public opinions to influence their governments’ foreign policies. She tried to affect opinion leaders in the US by frequently writing opinion pieces for major newspapers like The New York Times and appearing on TV news programs as a commentator on Korean affairs. As a well-known analyst on security around the Korean Peninsula, she is also carrying out a public policy research program funded by the Korea Foundation, Korea’s main public diplomacy agency.

Although public diplomacy is increasingly becoming popular across the world and practiced by most governments because of the growing importance of public opinion, it can be associated with malicious propaganda and psychological warfare. That is because the original form of public diplomacy practiced during two world wars tended to include deceptive messaging and propagandistic brainwashing. Although such tactics have been largely replaced by more fact-based messaging and genuine relation cultivation, old habits die hard.

In fact, what the National Intelligence Service, formerly Korean CIA, did in regard to Terry’s activities was blatantly crude, resembling old-style spy operations. The agency’s handler provided Terry with expensive gifts and meals in broad daylight, according to black and white photos secretly taken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The pictures also show her handing a note on her supposedly closed meeting with US officials to the Korean handler in an official Korean Embassy vehicle. The fact that Korea’s spy agency, not a more open institution like the Korea Foundation, contacted Terry was good enough to invite suspicions from the US government.

On top of that, the Korean government is known in Washington as an aggressive and even illegal lobbyist. In the 1970s, the so-called Koreagate affair involving a high-profile Korean-American lobbyist who bribed Congress members to influence US policies on the Korean Peninsula rocked US politics.

Tongsun Park, the lobbyist, fled the US to avoid prosecution, but several US representatives were convicted for taking money from him. In the 1990s, Robert Kim, a US Naval officer, was also convicted and imprisoned for handing military secrets to the Korean government.

Now the big concern is that Terry’s case will dampen even legitimate public diplomacy efforts in Washington. Currently, the Korea Foundation and other government agencies carry out programs to reach out to US scholars, journalists and other opinion leaders for more favorable US policies on Korea. Such efforts are seen as important for Seoul as it endeavors to strengthen its alliance with Washington in the wake of an increasingly turbulent geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia.

Analysts believe US opinion leaders will become more reluctant to contact and talk to Korean officials because of the indictment. A reelection of President Trump, known for his tough stance against foreign influences, will further tighten their lips.

In order to avoid such fallout, Seoul needs to make its outreach programs in the US more subtle and sophisticated. Outright efforts to buy influence from opinion leaders through such crude means as gifting cannot be repeated. More transparent and legitimate public diplomacy programs by official government agencies should replace outdated secret intelligence gathering and spying on US officials. Instead of relying on only a handful number of Korean-speaking Korea experts in Washington, more fresh Korea hands with diverse backgrounds ought to be developed as public diplomacy targets. After all, the stakes are too high for Seoul to be discouraged by Terry’s case in its efforts to win the support of the American public.

Lee Byung-jong

Lee Byung-jong is a former Seoul correspondent for Newsweek, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News. He is a professor of international relations at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.