(AFP) – Dec 9, 2007

TAEAN, South Korea (AFP) — A huge clean-up operation on South Korea's stricken southwest coast after the country's worst oil spill is set to drag on for two months, a government minister warned Sunday.

As thousands of troops, police, coastguards and volunteers battled to clear crude oil off the beaches, the crew of the 147,000-tonne Hebei Spirit finally stopped it from leaking, officials said.

They pumped the remaining oil out of the last of three containers which had been holed by a barge in a collision Friday.

But with over 10,000 tons of crude oil spilled into the Yellow Sea and now polluting a long stretch of coastline, most of the damage has been done.

A state of disaster has been declared in the region where beaches and farms dependent on the sea have been badly affected around Taean, 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of Seoul.

Maritime Minister Kang Moo-Hyun said he estimated the clean-up would take "at least two months" given the size of the oil slick.

He told reporters there was serious contamination along 17 to 20 kilometres of coastline, with the oil sludge either glued onto beaches or sinking to the seabed.

"Even if some of the fish and maritime life survive, they wouldn't be marketable for a while," Kang said.

"We will take whatever measures are needed to stop the oil from washing onto the seashore."

More than 6,600 people, backed by 90 boats and six planes, fought to remove oil drifting at sea or washing onto beaches.

Booms were set up to contain the oil, and skimmers were working to collect and remove slicks from the water surface, the Taean coast guard said.

On the beaches, police, troops and volunteers carried buckets of sludge to huge rubber pools from which they scooped black oily sand into sacks.

Of the three holed containers on the Hong Kong-registered tanker, two had been emptied by Saturday while the last oil from the third was pumped into one of the two unaffected containers overnight, coast guard officials said.

"The crew on the tanker was able to pump crude oil in the third damaged container into an undamaged one overnight," a coast guard official in Taean told AFP earlier.

"The tanker has stopped leaking since early Sunday," he said, adding "they are still mopping up oil, but it's not work to be done in a few days."

Lee Bong-Gil, who heads the Korea Coast Guard's maritime pollution bureau, told Yonhap news agency: "The large size of the spill has made the containment difficult, but there will be no significant expansion of the oil considering the tide, wind and their speeds."

Park Tae-Soon, a county official in Taean, said that while there was no official damage report available yet, there were 445 sea farms in the area for oyster, abalone, clam and other seafood.

"The sea farms there are badly affected by the oil spill. No one knows how many years it will take for them to recover from the damage," he told AFP.

The government called an emergency meeting of ministers involved. Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo called for a major campaign to minimise damage.

"The few days ahead are very important for bringing the situation under control," he said.

Presidential candidates flocked to the area to show sympathy for farmers, with just 10 days to go till the election.

The tanker was berthed five miles off Mallipo, near waters designated as a national park, when it was struck by the barge.

The barge floated free and slammed into the port side, tearing three holes in the tanker's hull, when a cable linking it to a tug broke in rough seas.

This stretch of coastline is one of Asia's largest wetland areas, providing important habitat for migrating birds.

The Hebei Spirit had been due to sail into the port of Daesan to discharge its cargo when it was holed.

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