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Favorable weather stops oil spill from spreading

Favorable winds and frantic clean-up efforts have largely stopped a huge seaborne oil slick from spreading, workers battling South Korea's worst oil spill said yesterday.

Foreign help began arriving to disperse the seaborne slick and to clean up tourist beaches and scores of marine farms already fouled by the crude oil.

A week after a holed supertanker spilt some 9,500 tonnes into the Yellow Sea, the Coast Guard said the slick is static about 10km from scenic Anmyeon Island.

Crews fear it could be pushed onto the island, which is part of a national marine park, if winds pick up. They have set up "oil fences" in three layers along the coast.

Coast Guard officials said some smaller slicks containing clumps of oil were breaking off but were not yet a major concern.

A Coast Guard spokesman in hard-hit Taean county, 110km southwest of Seoul, said efforts to disperse the main slick were starting to pay off.

Some 16 aircraft and 254 vessels were combating the spillage yesterday, along with 25,000 people, including 10,100 volunteers.

Four decontamination experts from the US Coast Guard arrived in Seoul on Thursday night to help.

Singapore's decontamination agency pledged one airplane and other equipment, while China and Japan promised to send 59 tonnes and 9 tonnes of oil absorbents respectively. China said two ships carrying the material left Qingdao port on Thursday night.

Earlier, the Northwest Pacific Action Plan, part of a UN program, said it would provide 90 tonnes of absorbents.

The accident happened when a drifting barge carrying a construction crane smashed into the anchored 133,000-ton Hong Kong-registered supertanker Hebei Spirit and holed it in three places on Dec. 7.

The government, accused of a slow response to the disaster, has offered up to 300 billion won (US$325 million) in emergency funds to support small businesses and marine farmers.
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