China has sent two vessels to assist in a crude oil clean-up
operation after a supertanker collided with another ship near South
Korean coastline, the Ministry of Communications said on its
website on Friday.
A damaged
Hong-Kong-registered oil tanker is seen as the tanker spills oil
after an accident on the sea in Taean, about 170km (106 miles)
southwest of Seoul, December 8, 2007.
Xu Zuyuan, vice minister of communications, said the two ships,
carrying more than 65 tons of oil-absorbing materials and heavy
equipment, left Qingdao port in the eastern province of Shandong on Thursday night.
A week ago, the South Korean barge, Samsung No. 1, hit the oil
tanker Hebei Spirit from Hong Kong, sending more than 10,000 tons
of crude oil into the Yellow Sea. Although the damaged tanker had
stopped leaking, a South Korean official said a long stretch of
coastline had been polluted.
Xu said the dispatch of Chinese clean-up vessels was in response
to a South Korean emergency request. In 2003, Japan, Russia, South
Korea and China all signed an agreement to jointly deal with large
oil spills in the Pacific northeast.
The announcement also said a Chinese team of experts would
travel to the spill site to provide technical support.
A damaged
Hong-Kong-registered oil tanker is seen as the tanker spills oil
after an accident on the sea in Taean, about 170km (106 miles)
southwest of Seoul, December 8, 2007.
The spill, which stained one of South Korea's best-known beaches
150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, was the largest of its kind in
the country. In 1995, another tanker, the Sea Prince, struck a reef
and released 5,035 tons of oil into the water off the country's
south coast.
Following the recent spill, the South Korean government sent 90
vessels and six planes to the site to prevent further spread of the
floating oil.
An environmentalist
holds a dead mallard covered in crude oil on a beach in Taean,
about 170km (106 miles) southwest of Seoul, December 8,
2007.
A bird covered in the crude oil is seen
on a beach after an oil tanker accident in Taean, about 170km (106
miles) southwest of Seoul, December 8, 2007.
(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2007)
