Woman held in S Korea over children's bodies in suitcases in New Zealand

A woman has been arrested in South Korea on two murder charges from New Zealand, where the bodies of two long-dead children were found last month in abandoned suitcases.

South Korean police said they detained the 42-year-old woman in the southeastern port city of Ulsan on Thursday, based on a South Korean court warrant issued after New Zealand requested her extradition.

The unidentified woman covered her face with the hood of her coat as officers escorted her outside an Ulsan police station and put her in a car headed for the capital, Seoul.

"Police arrested the suspect at an apartment in Ulsan on Thursday following a stakeout with tips on her whereabouts and CCTV footage," Seoul's National Police Agency said in a statement.

"The suspect is accused by the New Zealand police of having murdered two of her children, aged seven and 10 then, in around 2018 in the Auckland area," it said.

She will undergo a review at the Seoul High Court over whether she should be extradited, said Park Seung-hoon, an official at the National Police Agency. Park said a date hadn't yet been set but the review must take place within two months.

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Challenging investigation

New Zealand police said the warrant was in connection with two charges of murder, and they have applied to have the woman extradited under the provisions of a treaty between the two nations.

They said they have asked South Korean authorities to keep the woman in jail until she is extradited.

"To have someone in custody overseas within such a short period of time has all been down to the assistance of the Korean authorities and the coordination by our New Zealand Police Interpol staff," Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa'amanuia Vaaelua said in a statement.

He said the investigation had been "very challenging" and that inquiries were continuing both in New Zealand and abroad.

Vaaelua said police weren't going to comment further as the matter was now before the courts.

Authorities in New Zealand typically don't comment on pending court cases in order to avoid the possibility of influencing the outcome.

The bodies were discovered last month after a New Zealand family bought abandoned goods, including two suitcases, from a storage unit in Auckland in an online auction. Police said the New Zealand family had nothing to do with the deaths.

The children had been dead for a number of years, and the suitcases had been in storage for at least three or four years, according to police.

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