SEOUL and BEIJING — South Korean customs said it had confiscated more than 17,000 “health” capsules smuggled from China that contain human flesh, most likely extracted from aborted fetuses or stillborn babies.

The Chinese Ministry of Health said Tuesday it had been investigating allegations that capsules were being manufactured from human remains but had found no evidence.

The South Korean customs agency said pills had been smuggled into the country through parcels and luggage carried from China. The pills were composed of "ground stillborn fetus or babies that had been cut into small pieces and dried in gas ranges for two days, then made into powders and encapsulated," the report said.

"Flesh pills have been continuously smuggled into [South Korea], camouflaged as health tonics," the statement said. The pills came mostly from cities in northeastern China: Yanji, Jilin, Qingdao and Tianjin.