South Korean Man Dies After Self-Immolation Over Oil Spill Compensation

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

TAEAN, South Korea, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) – A South Korean man who was hospitalized earlier after burning himself to protest the lack of compensation following the country’s worst oil spill died early Saturday, hospital officials said.

Ji Chang-whan, 56, who was hospitalized Friday in Taean, a city in the western coast, after drinking pesticide and setting himself ablaze during a rally, died in a coma, according to the Soon Chung Hyunag Hospital in the nearby city of Cheonan.

Over 12,000 tons of crude oil were spilled off the west coast of Taean, South Chungcheong province, after a barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries struck a Hong Kong-registered oil tanker last month. The leak destroyed fish farms and a nature reserve in the ecologically pristine region and has also damaged South Korea’s south coast.

In the midst of the rally of about 5,000 Taean fish farmers and merchants, Ji ran to the stage, poured the oil on his body and set it afire with a cigarette lighter.

The labour party is pushing to legislate state funds to compensate the victims and to clean up the affected regions. Taean residents are calling on the companies involved in the spill to fully compensate and take unlimited responsibility for the damaged environment. Those involved companies are the barge owner Samsung Heavy Industries, the refinery Hyundai Oil Bank, and Hong Kong’s Hebei Ocean Shipping Company that owns the oil tanker.

Originally published by Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0125 19 Jan 08.

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