The government on Saturday evening declared a state of disaster in the western coastal area of the country due to an oil spill, officials said.
The declaration comes after spilled crude oil from a heavy tanker began spreading to the western coastal area of South Chungcheong province, which is dotted with national parks and fish farms.
Meanwhile, scores of Coast Guard and private ships struggled to clean up crude oil leaked from a heavy tanker as the spilled oil began reaching the southern shoreline dotted with natural parks and fish farms.
The Hong Kong-registered Hebei Spirit, a 146,000-ton tanker, collided with an 11,800-ton barge on Friday morning, causing the leak of about 10,500 tons of oil into waters off Taean county, South Chungcheong province. A crane being carried by the barge hit the tanker, puncturing three holes in the vessel.
The spill is the largest in South Korea's history, about twice the size of the leak of 5,035 tons in 1995, the country's worst oil spill before Friday's accident.
The Taean Coast Guard dispatched some 70 ships and six helicopters and built a 4.2 km oil fence along the southwestern shore to contain the oil, officials said. But the oil, pushed by tides and the wind, has already reached some famous beaches and is threatening fish farms in Taean county. Some coastal areas such as Simnipo and Mohang have been turned black as the crude oil soaked into the sand.
The disaster is expected to deal a heavy blow to tourist businesses and oyster and abalone farming in the ecologically pristine Taean county. Some 5,650 ha of fish farms operate there.
"The oil lines have yet to reach the shore, but the winds are blowing toward the shore, and the tide is coming in... Once the oil reaches here, it's the end of farming," Kang Tae-chang, 47, head of the fish farmers' organization in the village of Uihang-ri, Taean county, said.
The accident could cause compensation payments of as much as 300 billion won (US$330 million) from British Lloyd P&I, the insurance company for the barge, and from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, an intergovernmental organization that provides compensation for damage caused by oil spills from tankers.
In the 1995 accident in which a tanker struck a reef, its insurer and the international organization provided payments of 50 billion won.