South Korean police arrest woman over NZ children found dead in suitcases

South Korean police said they arrested on Thursday a woman believed to be the mother of two children whose remains were found in suitcases in New Zealand last month.

The Korean-born New Zealander is charged with murder.

The woman in her 40s was arrested in the southeastern city of Ulsan earlier in the day, after global police agency Interpol issued a red notice, the Korean National Police Agency said.

The woman is suspected of fleeing to South Korea in 2018 after killing her then 7-year-old and 10-year-old children in Auckland, authorities said.

A South Korean court will review whether to extradite the suspect to New Zealand, they added.

New Zealand police launched a homicide inquiry in Auckland after the remains of the children were found by a family going through the contents of a storage locker they had purchased unseen. 

The family who found the bodies were not connected to the deaths.