South Korea and Japan failed to finalize the details of Seoul's upcoming inspection of Tokyo's plan to discharge wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The two sides held the second round of working-level talks virtually on Wednesday afternoon after they had failed to reach an agreement in the previous director-general-level session held last Friday in Seoul.

Despite four hours of discussions, however, they once again failed to reach a conclusion on the details.

After the talks, a foreign ministry official said that consultation with Japan has not been completed, adding that the two sides will continue to communicate via diplomatic channels after reviewing the outcome of Wednesday's consultation.

Seoul previously submitted a list of facilities and information its inspection team hopes to access, but Japan reportedly said that access to some facilities requires internal consultation and voiced disapproval of the plan to inspect parts of the Multi-Nuclide Removal Facility, noting that it is not currently operating.

The team is expected to make a four-day visit to Japan for the inspection scheduled on May 23 and 24.