The murder trial for a woman accused of killing her two primary school-aged children after their bodies were found inside suitcases has been adjourned.
Hakyung Lee, the mother of Minu Jo and Yuna Jo, appeared at the High Court in Auckland on Monday, where the murder trial was expected to begin.
Lee has previously pleaded not guilty. Lee kept her head down with her hair covering her face while sitting in the dock next to a translator.
Court rules prevent Newshub from detailing the exact reasons for the delay, but Justice Rebecca Edwards told the court an adjournment was necessary to preserve Lee's fair trial rights.
Lee was extradited from South Korea in 2022 after her children's remains were found inside suitcases that had been left in a storage locker in Auckland's Papatoetoe.
The contents of the locker, including the suitcases, were purchased by a family as part of an online auction for abandoned goods. The family had no knowledge what they'd purchased and were never linked to the police investigation. At the time police said the bodies of the children had been in storage for "a number of years".
A decision on a new date for the trial will be made on May 15.
