Weather helps control SKorea's worst oil spill: coast guard

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

TAEAN, South Korea (AFP) — Officials said Wednesday they have started to break down a huge seaborne crude oil slick as thousands cleaned up beaches and marine farms already coated by South Korea's worst oil spill.

Almost 12,000 people, 220 ships and five helicopters were fighting the spill on the country's scenic west coast, said Cho Yong-Hyun, a Taean county official.

The slick so far has hit 227 sea farms in the county 110 kilometres (69 miles) southwest of Seoul, along with pristine beaches.

"The 70-kilometre (44-mile) oil band at sea is being diluted and shrinking," Woo Dae-Ho, an official at the Coast Guard in Taean, told AFP. "The oil is not spreading at the moment thanks to our active clean-up operations."

Another Coast Guard official, Lee...