POLICE have identified a badly-decomposed body discovered hidden in a house in London as that of missing South Korean student In Hea Song.

The body of Miss Song, 22, who had visited York shortly before she vanished in December last year, was found on March 15 in what police have described as "a disused, sealed, refuse cupboard" at the house where she had stayed, in Augusta Street, Poplar, east London. It was found by the new tenants who had just moved in.

The badly-decomposed state of the body meant she had to be identified through DNA tests.

Police had searched the house shortly after her disappearance, but found nothing. Earlier tests showed she had died from suffocation.

Police had initially linked her disappearance to the discovery of the bound and gagged body of Hyo Jung Jin, 21, which was found in a suitcase dumped in a country lane at Askham Richard, near York, on November 18.

A post-mortem examination at the time revealed she too had been suffocated.

Kyu Soo Kim, 30, from Holborn, central London, who has been charged with the murder of Miss Jin is set to stand trial in September. He is due to appear at the Old Bailey on May 7 for a plea and directions hearing.

Updated: 11:49 Wednesday, March 27, 2002