TESTS on the body of a woman, thought to be that of a missing South Korean student, have revealed she died from suffocation.

The body, which was discovered hidden in a house in east London last Friday, is believed to be that of In Hea Song, 22, who had visited York shortly before she vanished last year.

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.

The latest grim discovery was made by the new occupiers of a house in Augusta Street, Poplar, east London, where Ms Song had been living before she disappeared on December 8.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said today that the body had been discovered in a "disused, sealed refuse cupboard" but would not discuss any other details of the circumstances in which the body was found.

He said that police had searched the address shortly after Ms Song was reported missing, but had found nothing.

A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death as "obstruction of airways", or suffocation, and that the body was that of a woman.

The body is still to be formally identified, and the spokesman added that its badly decomposed state meant DNA tests would be needed.

Only last month police appealed to the people of York to help solve the mystery of Miss Song's disappearance.

She had been studying hotel management at London Guildhall University, and was caught on CCTV at Victoria coach station in London before she boarded a coach bound for York on November 16.

Her anguished parents, Gilyong and Nyoungok, made a heartfelt plea for information about their daughter's whereabouts in the Evening Press at the time.

Police said her parents, who visited London after she went missing but have since returned to South Korea, would have been told about the discovery of the body.

Kyu Soo Kim, 30, from Holborn, central London, appeared at the Old Bailey on January 28 charged with the murder of Miss Jin. He was remanded in custody to reappear at the court next Monday.

Updated: 11:24 Tuesday, March 19, 2002