The presidential office said it will consider launching inspections and reprimanding intelligence officials from the previous Moon Jae-in administration, after the state spy agency's past activities were exposed in the U.S. indictment of a Korean-American expert on North Korea.

A high-ranking official at the top office said on Thursday that any inspection or reprimand would involve the Moon government, before stating that the matter will be reviewed.

The official then blamed the former administration for dismissing agents capable of professionally conducting external activities, while replacing them with "amateur-like" people.

Earlier, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted Sue Mi Terry, a former Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) official and an expert with the Council on Foreign Relations(CFR), on charges of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Terry is accused of giving access, information, and advocacy to South Korean intelligence officers from 2013 to last June in return for luxury handbags, expensive meals, and thousands of dollars of funding for her public policy program.