S. Korea, China to discuss oil leaks in Bohai Bay

SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and China will hold an annual meeting on environmental issues this week to discuss their joint measures to deal with recent oil leaks in the Bohai Bay, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea adjacent to South Korea, officials in Seoul said Monday.
The two sides will hold the two-day meeting of the Joint Committee on Environmental Affairs from Thursday in the city of Xiamen in southeastern China, officials at Seoul's foreign ministry said.
The meeting comes nearly one month after South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jeichi agreed to share information on maritime accidents such as oil leaks when they met on the sidelines of an Asian security forum in late July.
"Given the importance of the matter of recent offshore oil leaks, we will take up the issue and discuss joint measures to deal with it during this week's meeting," a foreign ministry official said.
An unspecified amount of oil has leaked since mid-June from the Bohai Bay oil field jointly operated by U.S.-based ConocoPhillips and China National Offshore Oil Corp., prompting Seoul to express concern about the oil leaks.
Chinese officials have said that the oil leaks were under control and clean-up efforts were underway, but the Chinese unit of ConocoPhillips reported last week nine more sites of oil leaks, according to Beijing's State Oceanic Administration.
South Korea and China have held the annual meeting on environmental affairs since 1993.
kdh@yna.co.kr