French woman confessed to killing twin babies in South Korea: report

A French woman under investigation along with her husband over the deaths of two babies found in a freezer in the couple's house in South Korea has confessed that she killed the fraternal twins, a foreign media report said Wednesday.

According to Reuters, which cited French police and prosecution sources, a DNA test confirmed an earlier test conducted in South Korea that showed Veronique Courjault and her husband Jean-Louis were the parents of the dead babies.

She admitted to killing the children herself, the report said, quoting the sources. But she reportedly told the police that her husband has nothing to do with the babies' deaths.

The motive for her alleged action was not reported.

Courjault faces life imprisonment in France if convicted of infanticide.

The couple has been under investigation since being arrested the previous day. They denied being the parents of the babies, even during the arrest.

Jean-Louis Courjault, who worked as an engineer for an American car parts company in Seoul, reported finding the infants' frozen bodies in a freezer in his home in southern Seoul on July 23. The couple had challenged the validity of the South Korean DNA tests.

The couple are now in Tours, a city southwest of Paris, and refuse to return to Seoul. Their silence has caused increasing media suspicion surrounding the deaths of the babies.

The investigation by the French police began last month after South Korean police sought their cooperation. South Korea then sent the results of their investigation to France, along with DNA samples.

The pair had been living in South Korea since August 2002, and Korean police believe the twins were born and killed between that time and December 2003, when the mother had a hysterectomy. The couple have two other children.

PARIS, Oct. 12 (Yonhap)