Suitcase murders: Woman accused of killing children pleads not guilty

The woman accused of the murder of her two children, whose bodies were found in suitcases in Auckland, has pleaded not guilty.

The 42-year-old accused, who faces two charges of murder, arrived in New Zealand in November after being extradited from South Korea. 

The woman's lawyer, Chris Wilkinson-Smith, entered not guilty pleas on her behalf.

The accused, who has continued name suppression, did not appear in the High Court at Auckland on Wednesday morning.

Justice Sally Fitzgerald set a trial date for April 2024.

In September, South Korean police arrested the woman who was "hiding in an apartment" in the city of Ulsan.

The Korean Ministry of Justice received a request from New Zealand for her provisional arrest in connection with the death of the children.

The woman told Korean reporters as she was bundled into a car: "I didn't do it."

It was a major development almost 10,000 kilometres away from the south Auckland suburb of Manurewa where the children's bodies were first discovered in suitcases.

In August, the human remains of two primary school-aged children were discovered at an address on Moncrieff Ave in the south Auckland suburb of Manurewa.

Newshub later revealed the remains were unknowingly taken by a family to their Manurewa home who'd bid and won an auction for abandoned goods in a SafeStore Papatoetoe storage facility.

The children were aged between 5 and 10 years old and had been dead for a long time. Police said the suitcases had been in storage in Auckland for at least three or four years.