Ammon News - (BBC) - A UN panel is beginning hearings in the South Korean capital on human rights abuses inside North Korea.

The three-person panel will interview witnesses in Seoul and later in Japan.

The hearings are taking place in South Korea because investigators were reportedly refused permission to enter the North.

North Korea has been accused of systematic human rights violations, including torture, abductions and running prison camps.

The UN named panel members of its first-ever human rights investigation into North Korea in May.

Retired Australian judge Michael Kirby is chairing the inquiry, working with UN special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman and human rights activist Sonja Biserko.

It was set up to investigate "the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights" in North Korea, the UN said in a statement in May.

Violations to be investigated "are those pertaining to the right to food, those associated with prison camps, torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrary detention, discrimination, freedom of expression, the right to life, freedom of movement, and enforced disappearances, including in the form of abductions of nationals of other states", it said.

The inquiry will also look at who is accountable for any violations among state institutions and officials, reports the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.

More than 30 witnesses will be interviewed in five days of hearings, including North Koreans who have recently fled the country, our correspondent adds.

Commissioners will also meet government officials and campaign groups, and interview witnesses in Japan, before compiling a final report early next year.

"We will investigate. We will do so impartially. We will do so carefully," Mr Kirby said in Seoul on Monday.

The panel is due to present its report to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014.