Woman arrested in South Korea after bodies of two children found in abandoned suitcase

New Zealand police previously told South Korean police that the child’s mother may be living in the country.

The children’s corpses were found at an online auction last month by a New Zealand family who bought discarded items from an Auckland warehouse at an online auction.

Police said the children were between the ages of 5 and 10, had been dead for several years, and that the suitcase had been in storage for at least three to four years.

South Korean police said they had detained a woman in the southeastern port city of Ulsan based on a South Korean court warrant issued after New Zealand demanded her extradition.

According to Park Seung-hoon, a National Police Agency official, she will be examined at the Seoul High Court to see if she should be extradited.

No date has been set yet, but the review should take place within two months.

New Zealand police said the warrants were linked to two murder charges and called on South Korean authorities to keep the woman in prison until she was extradited.

“We were able to detain someone abroad in such a short time thanks to the support of the South Korean authorities and the coordination of the New Zealand Police Interpol staff,” Tofilau Faamanuia Vaerua said in a statement. rice field.

He said the investigation was “extremely difficult” and that investigations were continuing both in New Zealand and abroad.

Vaaelua said the police would not comment further as the matter is now in court.

According to South Korean police, the woman was born in South Korea and then emigrated to New Zealand, where she obtained citizenship. According to her immigration records, she returned to South Korea in 2018.