4,500 fishermen hold protest at Samsung Elec. HQ

Around 4,500 members of an association representing the victims of the 2007 Taean County oil spill held a protest Monday in front of Samsung Electronics headquarters, demanding "proper compensation" from the company.

The rally started at 11 a.m., with protesters, mostly fishermen, holding placards reading "Summon Lee Kun-hee," demanding that Samsung take proper action to compensate Taean residents for the nation`s worst oil spill five years ago. They marched around the building wearing colorfully decorated bier, shouting, "Samsung, bring back clean waters to the western coast." The rally ended at 5 p.m. without major physical confrontations.

In 2007, the Hong Kong supertanker Hebei Spirit was rammed by a Samsung Heavy Industries crane barge, resulting in a massive spill of crude oil into the sea. A Korean court limited the compensation amount to 5.6 billion won (5.2 million U.S. dollars). To make up for a possible shortfall, Samsung pledged another 180 billion won (166 million dollars) in recovery funds. Taean fishermen, however, want at least 500 billion won (462 million dollars) as well as social contribution activities in the region.

tigermask@donga.com