Seoul City Sue Anna Wallis Suh ( 19001969 ) , the woman generally associated with the nickname Seoul City Sue , was a Methodist missionary , educator , and North Korean propaganda radio announcer to United States forces during the Korean War . Anna was born in Arkansas , the sixth of six children . After her mother and father died in 1910 and 1914 , she relocated to Oklahoma to join a sister ' s family while she completed high school . She spent her early adult years as an office clerk and Sunday school teacher . Subsequently , she studied at the Southeastern State Teachers College , in Durant , and the Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville , Tennessee , graduating in 1930 with a B . A . in ministry . She spent the next eight years working as a member of the American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission in Korea . As Japanese colonial authorities continued to restrict the activities of foreign missions , Anna joined the staff of Shanghai American School ( SAS ) in 1938 . There she met and married fellow staff member Sŏ Kyu Ch ’ ŏl ( 서규철 徐奎哲 ) , thus losing her United States citizenship . Late in World War II she was interned by the Japanese for two years with other White Europeans at a camp in suburban Shanghai . After release , she resumed work at SAS for a year , before returning to Korea with her husband in 1946 . The Suhs settled in Seoul , where Anna taught at the U . S . Legation school until being fired in 1949 due to suspicion of her husband for left wing political activities . They remained or were trapped in Seoul during the Northern army ' s invasion of South Korea in June 1950 . Anna began announcing a short English language program for North Korean " Radio Seoul " starting on or about July 18 , continuing until shortly after the Inchon landing on September 15 , when the Suhs were evacuated north as a part of the general withdrawal of North Korean forces . Subsequently , she continued broadcasts on Radio Pyongyang . The Suhs participated in the political indoctrination of US POW s at a camp near Pyongyang in February , 1951 . Charles Robert Jenkins reported that , some time after the war , Anna Suh was put in charge of English language publications for the Korean Central News Agency . He also wrote that he saw her in a photo for a 1962 propaganda pamphlet , and met her briefly in 1965 at a department store in Pyongyang . Jenkins stated that he was told in 1972 that Suh had been shot as a South Korean double agent in 1969 . Early life . She was born Anna Wallis to Albert B . and M . Jane Wallis in 1900 in Lawrence County , Arkansas . She was the youngest of six children . Anna ' s parents died when she was young ; her mother died some time between the 1900 and 1910 Census , and her father in October , 1914 . Subsequently , she relocated to Oklahoma with a sister . Anna attended the Southeastern State Teachers College , in Durant , Oklahoma , before transferring to the Scarritt College for Christian Workers , an institution dedicated to the training of Methodist missionaries , in Nashville , Tennessee . Ann graduated with a B . A . in 1930 . Korean mission and China . That same year , she was selected for a mission to Korea by the Southern Methodist Conference . There , she initially taught at a Methodist school . By the early 1930s , the Japanese colonial administration had largely banned foreigners from Christian proselytizing , and most Christian missions focused on education , medicine , and care for the indigent . She may have returned to the US in 1935 to visit a sister . In late 1936 , she was appointed to serve at the Seoul Social Evangelistic Center , and in February 1937 , visited Scarritt College during a missionary furlough . In a move that may have reflected increasingly harsh Japanese measures against foreign missionaries in the late 30s , Anna relocated to China to join the staff of the Shanghai American School ( SAS ) in 1938 . There she met Sŏ Kyu Ch ’ ŏl , who was hired to teach Korean and assist in school administration . She was dropped from the rolls of the missionary service and lost her United States citizenship after they married . She developed an interest in Korean politics , eventually taking up her husband ' s leftist views . The cosmopolitan Shanghai International Settlement and French Concession were likely a more accepting environment for the Suhs than homogeneous 1940s Korea would later prove to be , as suggested by the number of other Caucasian women on staff married to Asian men . In 1939 , she visited San Francisco in an unsuccessful attempt to secure a US passport for her husband . Sino - Japanese War . Americans in Shanghai began to depart that same year , slowly as tensions rose in the environs of the city , then en masse shortly before the US and Japan officially went to war . SAS remained open until February 1943 , when the remaining foreign staff were forced into the Chapei Civilian Relocation Center , a short distance away in the northern suburbs . This internment camp , one of several in and around Shanghai , occupied a three story dormitory on the grounds of Great China University ( now East China Normal University ) , most of which was damaged or destroyed during the 1937 Battle of Shanghai . Whether as a part of the remaining school staff or on her own , Anna also entered the Chapei center at this time , while her husband may have remained free as a colonial subject of Japan . During the internment , the SAS staff and parents took advantage of the school ' s books that had followed them to organize classes for the children . Supplies with which to maintain the internees grew short towards the end of the war , and a number of women married to citizens of Axis powers or neutral countries were released in late 1944 . It is possible that Anna was among these . With Anna ' s formal release from detention at the end of World War II , she joined the staff of the reconstituted SAS for the 1945 - 46 school year . Korean War . Unable to continue earning a sufficient living in post - war Shanghai , she and her husband returned to liberated Korea , where she tutored children at the US Diplomatic Mission School in Seoul . Her employment was terminated after her husband was investigated for left wing activities . Shortly thereafter , North Korea invaded the South in June , 1950 . The Korean People ' s Army occupied Seoul three days after the start of hostilities . The speed of the advance caught the majority of residents by surprise and unprepared to evacuate , in part due to ROK radio propaganda rather at odds with the actual situation . Anna and her husband remained as well , perhaps because he was unwilling to abandon a school for indigent boys that he administered . During a July 10 meeting in Seoul that included 48 to 60 members of the ROK National Assembly , the couple pledged their loyalty to the North Korean regime . Under Dr . Lee Soo , an English instructor from Seoul University , Anna began announcing for North Korean " Radio Seoul " from the Korean Broadcasting System ' s HLKA studios , with daily programs from 9 : 30 to 10 : 15 pm local time , first heard as early as July 18 . The Suhs had been relocated to a temporary home near the station . Suh ' s defenders gave the dull tone of her broadcasts as proof that she was being forced to make them . Her initial scripts suggested that American soldiers return to their corner ice cream stands , criticized the USAF bombing campaign , and reported names recovered from the dog tags of dead American soldiers to a background of soft music . The G . I . s gave her various nicknames , including Rice Ball or Rice Bowl Maggie , Rice Ball Kate , and Seoul City Sue . The latter name stuck , likely derived from " Sioux City Sue " , the title of a song initially made popular by Zeke Manners from 1946 . Through the rest of the summer of 1950 , her reports would announce the names of recently captured US airmen , marines , and soldiers , threaten new units arriving in country , welcome warships by name as they arrived on station , or taunt African American soldiers regarding their limited civil rights at home . Her monotone on - air delivery and the lack of popular music programming evidently left Ann ' s broadcasts less enjoyable for her intended audience than German and Japanese English - language radio shows during World War II . Radio Seoul went off the air at the start of a " Sue " program during an August 13 air strike on communications and transportation facilities in the city , as a B - 26 bomber dropped 200 lbs fragmentation bombs adjacent to the transmitter . The station came back on the air a week or two later . The Suhs were evacuated north by truck after the Inchon landings , a few days before US forces entered the city . Mr . & Mrs . Suh joined the staff of Radio Pyongyang , where she continued English - language broadcasts to UN forces . They were temporarily reassigned to indoctrinate UN POWs at Camp 12 near Pyongyang in Feb , ' 51 , after which the POWs were directed to continue indoctrinating each other , with Korean supervision . Later life . Fellow defector Charles Robert Jenkins made several claims about Suh in his book " The Reluctant Communist " that have not been independently verified . He reported that , some time after the war , she was put in charge of English language publications for the Korean Central News Agency . He wrote that he saw her in a photo for a 1962 propaganda pamphlet called " I Am A Lucky Boy " , dining with Larry Allen Abshier , a US Army deserter and defector . Jenkins reported meeting her briefly in 1965 at the " foreigners only " section of the No . 2 Department Store in Pyongyang . Jenkins also stated that he was told in 1972 that Suh had been shot as a South Korean double agent in 1969 . Nationality . Based on US law through the 1930s , citizenship for a married woman was almost exclusively based on that of her husband , particularly if they lived in his native land . Therefore , Anna Wallis probably lost her US citizenship when she married Mr . Suh in China . Mr . Suh , as well as all other native residents of Korea and Taiwan , were nationals of the Empire of Japan , which recognized itself as a multi - ethnic state . Anna may not have recognized her situation until the 1939 visit to San Francisco to secure a US passport for her husband . In addition to her status as a Japanese national , the US had almost completely frozen Asian immigration with the Immigration Act of 1924 , which would likely have precluded his obtaining a passport . Arbitrary application of Japanese and US law may have dogged Anna over the following years . When the Japanese interned most ethnic Europeans within the Empire during World War II , it is not clear whether she was forced into the Chapei Relocation Center , or entered it willingly , since she was not a foreign national . Later , during the US military occupation of southern Korea , an attempt was made to restore her US citizenship , an effort which fell through for unknown reasons . It is possible that she became a national of South Korea as the wife of Mr . Suh . The Korean nationality that became reestablished between the end of World War II and the formal independence of the ROK in 1948 didn ' t distinguish between spouses . Although US forces sought her out after retaking Seoul in September , 1950 , officials recognized that it was unlikely that Mrs . Suh could be charged with treason by the US . In popular culture . During the Korean War , USAF pilots improvised a spoof of the Zeke Manner ' s hit " Sioux City Sue " using the most popular nickname for Ms . Suh . In multiple episodes of the TV series " M * A * S * H " a North Korean announcer calling herself " Seoul City Sue " is heard on the radio ( rebroadcast over the camp ' s PA ) . In " Bombed " she tells the GIs that their wives and girlfriends are being unfaithful and they would have more prosperous careers as civilians . In " 38 Across " she accuses Hawkeye Pierce of war crimes for performing an experimental technique to successfully save the life of a North Korean POW .