South Korea aims to hold the first working group meeting on the North Korean nuclear issue within this month.

South Korea's chief delegate to the second round of six-party nuclear talks, Lee Soo-hyuck, told CBS radio that South Korea had proposed to hold the first working group discussions two weeks after the Beijing talks.

Lee said lower level officials of the six countries would meet in a closed-door session for frank discussions to work out technical details on how to resolve the 16-month standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Lee said that unlike the high-level six-party talks, the working group meeting should be conducted only in English and without interpretations in order to save time.

Earlier, another senior official said that the government will promptly begin preparations to follow up on the agreement to establish working groups.

The official said the working group talks will be able to take place as early as mid-March or by no later than the end of this month. He said two or three lower-level meetings would probably precede a third round of six-way talks.

Details about who would be included in the working group were not released.

The agreement to convene a working group meeting was the most significant result of the second round of six-party nuclear talks that ended Saturday in Beijing without a breakthrough.

But North Korea accused the United States of ignoring its proposals and trying to isolate the North. The North's official news agency, KCNA, said the U.S. attitude makes it difficult to expect that any further talks would help find a solution to the issue.