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)