S. Korea's worst oil spill blackens coast

By Jo Yong-hak

TAEAN, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korean workers using skimmers and containment fences battled on Saturday to clean up the worst oil spill in the country's history, as the slick washed ashore near a nature preserve on the west coast.

Parts of about 17 kms (11 miles) of coastline about 100 km southwest of Seoul have already been blackened by oil, the coast guard said. More of the spill is expected on Sunday to hit the area that has marine farms and oyster beds.

"We are taking all measures to prevent that from happening," said Song Myeong-dal, head of the maritime ministry's Information and Policy Monitoring team.

A 20-km slick has extended from a Hong Kong-registered tanker that began leaking an estimated 10,500 tonnes of crude oil on Friday after a barge carrying a crane punched holes in its hull.

The first batches washed up near a nature preserve in the region famed for its beaches and home to a national park that is an important rest stop for migratory birds.

South Korea has already mobilised oil skimmers, containment fences, 103 ships, 5 helicopters and hundreds of troops to head off what could be one of the country's worst environmental disasters since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It will send more equipment and personnel to contain the spill on Sunday, the Taean coast guard said in a statement.

More than 1,200 local residents scrubbed rocks and removed washed up oil from the coast on Saturday.