Five Indicted in South Korean Oil Spill

South Korean prosecutors charged five people and two companies, including Samsung Heavy Industries, for marine pollution Monday in the country's worst-ever oil spill.

The Dec. 7 accident occurred after a barge slammed into a supertanker, which leaked 78,920 barrels of oil into western coastal waters. The accident jeopardized the ecosystem and the livelihood of residents in the area, home to some of the country's most scenic beaches.

The three South Korean captains of the barge and its two tugboats, along with two Indians who operated the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit, were charged with polluting the ocean and with professional negligence, the regional prosecutors' office said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Two of the South Koreans were being held in custody, while the other South Korean and the two Indians were banned from leaving the country but were not in custody, according to the statement issued in Seosan, close to the accident site 151 kilometers, or 94 miles, southwest of Seoul.

Prosecutors also charged the tanker's owner, Hebei Spirit Shipping, and the barge's operator, Samsung Heavy Industries, with polluting the ocean.

Oil Spill Off South Korean Coast: Video Report

Lumps Of Tar Near Yeondo, South Korea: Oil Spill Clean-Up Continues

SEOUL, South Korea: Oil that spilled from a punctured supertanker off the South Korean coast has drifted in the form of tar to a distant island, as tens of thousands of people continued massive clean-up operations Saturday with the help of U.S. specialists.

Lumps of tar were spotted in waters near Yeondo, an island some 75 miles south of the site of South Korea's largest-ever oil spill that released about 66,000 barrels into the ocean on Dec. 7, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Officials said such oil lumps pose much less threat to the environment and are easier to remove than oil in liquid form.

"It's something like asphalt, and the lumps that were found near Yeondo are very small in numbers," said Lee Won-yol, an official at the main Coast Guard office overseeing clean-up operations. "We believe they pose little contamination threat and can be easily removed."

American Coast Guard and NOAA Assist South Korea in Oil Spill Clean-Up

SEOUL, South Korea (Associated Press) — A team of U.S. Coast Guard experts arrived in South Korea on Thursday to help with the country's worst oil spill, as hundreds of vessels struggled in bad weather to contain the disaster for a seventh day.

The three American Coast Guard officials have significant hands-on experience with oil-spill management and will help draw up containment measures jointly with Korean experts, the Korean Coast Guard said in a statement.

An expert from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also arrived earlier Thursday on the same mission.

An Impossible Task: Oil Spill Clean-Up of South Korean Beaches

South Korean beaches declared a disaster area; despite many individuals working around the clock, the clean-up appears to be an impossible task.

Area Map of South Korean Oil Spill

"The oil stuck to the shore or sank to the sea bottom, causing serious damage to the maritime biology and ecosystem in the region,” Mr. Kang said. “Even if some maritime organisms survive, they won’t be marketable for quite a while.”

Coast guard vessels hurried to establish floating oil fences, but high waves left them useless. Offshore, 105 coast guard, navy and private fishing boats were throwing absorbing cloth and spraying chemicals, as oil continued to zigzag toward the shore, where people wearing rubber gloves and masks spread out with mats to absorb oil.

“All day, people have been scrubbing boulders coated with oil and scooping up sand soaked with oil,” said Lee Hyun-jin, a resident in the village of Sowon in Taean. “But now they are retreating because the sea is in high tide again. We feel hopelessly outnumbered.”

NY TIMES

'I Think We Are Finished': Oil Clean-Up in South Korea Virtually Impossible

By Sunday (today), it became clear to local residents that they were battling an environmental disaster. The tidal flats near the county of Taean, about 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, are home to rich wildlife, oyster and fish farms, and a national park. Each year, millions of tourists flock there to bathe in the summer or watch winter migrating birds stopping to feed in the muddy flats teeming with clams.

“Everyone is out there fighting. There is so much oil we have to use buckets to scoop it up,” Moon Hong Chol, a resident in Wonbuk village in Taean, said by telephone. “The dark brown slime is all over our oyster and abalone and clam beds. Tourists are canceling resort reservations. I think we are finished.”

Oil Spill South of Seoul, South Korea Stinks

About 70 boats and six helicopters were sent...to help the clean-up as hundreds of soldiers, coast guards, police and local residents used buckets to remove dense crude oil from Mallipo, one of South Korea's best-known and most popular beaches.

Residents said the oil could be smelt more than half a mile inland, as the slick contaminated four miles of shoreline.

"This is an enormous accident … the smell is so strong that it causes a headache," said Lee Hee-yol, a village leader at Mallipo. "We've asked the government to declare this region as a disaster zone."

The area, about 95 miles south-west of the capital, Seoul, is also the site of farms that produce abalone, seaweed, clams and sea cucumbers and the spill is likely to affect at least 4,000 fishermen. It is also home to a national maritime park and is an important sanctuary for migrating birds, including snipe, mallards and great crested grebes.