South Korea's vice finance minister said the government will announce a plan by next week for a second round of COVID-19 relief payments that will target the self-employed and small businesses struggling to cope with the pandemic.

Appearing on KBS Newsline on Thursday, First Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said while the first payments were aimed at stimulating spending, this time it will focus on those hardest hit amid efforts to curb a new wave of the epidemic.

Kim added that business sales, rather than income, will be used as a standard to determine eligibility.

On the government's creation of a 20-trillion-won "New Deal fund" for people to invest in infrastructure projects, the vice minister said up to ten percent of losses incurred would be covered by state finances, on top of various tax incentives.

While forecasting growth to rebound in the third quarter, Kim said the government will prepare supplementary steps to ensure that even if the country posts negative growth this year, it wouldn't be a big contraction.