More than 3,000 angry residents from Taean staged a demonstration in Seoul Wednesday, calling on Samsung Heavy Industries to pay compensation for the December oil spill that resulted in more than 12,000 tons of crude leaking into the waters off the West Coast.

Resentment and frustration have been brewing in Taean and the surrounding disaster areas over what residents feel is the lack of accountability by a major conglomerate. Samsung Heavy Industries -- whose barge carrying a crane crashed into an oil tanker -- has yet to pay a dime in compensation.

Nor did it apologize for the accident until after prosecutors found both Samsung Heavy Industries and the Hebei Spirit Shipping Co. to have been negligent, and charged the companies with violating Korea's maritime pollution-prevention law. The long-overdue apology made in the form of newspaper ads did not mention any compensation, but merely indicated that the company would work toward the recovery of people's livelihoods and the restoration of the eco-system.

Regarding what is largely seen as a shirking of responsibility, Samsung Heavy Industries offered the excuse that a premature compensation or apology could affect the investigation underway, as well as any future lawsuits.

To no one's surprise, the apology did not go down well with the people whose lives have been devastated by the catastrophe. About 100 representatives of the disaster-area residents demonstrated in front of the Samsung headquarters building two days ago, urging the company to assume unlimited liability.

Also urging the company to take responsibility was the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Kang Moo-hyun, who summoned Samsung Heavy Industries executives to his office. He noted that, while the government has provided a special fund, and the public has made donations, Samsung Heavy Industries has done nothing except print apologies in newspapers. Rather than wait for a legal resolution of the matter, the company should take concrete, visible measures, Kang said.

In announcing the interim results of the investigation, the prosecutor's office said that it was reserving any decision on the gross negligence of Samsung Heavy Industries. A finding of gross negligence would impose unlimited liability on the company, but the courts will have to make this decision, and this portends long, expensive legal battles. In the case of the 1995 oil spill off the coast of Yeosu in South Jeolla Province, the court cases went on for three years, with a complete settlement being achieved in 2001.

Samsung is a world-class business group whose growth has been supported by Koreans. Samsung Heavy Industries must act in a responsible manner that befits its standing in the global business community. Yes, the company does not have to pay anything to the people of Taean until it is ordered to do so. However, it can take the high road and offer compensation to the victims, out of a sense of moral duty, before any legal imperative is imposed.

The misery of the victims in this latest ecological disaster has been compounded by bureaucratic incompetence. Both the central and local governments should be held liable for the protracted delay in the distribution of emergency funds and donations. It came to light earlier this week that 55.8 billion won (S$8.25 million) in state funds and public donations sat in the safe as bureaucrats wrangled over how the money would be distributed. In the meantime, three people from Taean, their livelihoods wiped out by the oil spill, have taken their lives.

It will be a few more days before the money actually reaches the people in the disaster areas. The distribution should be handled fairly so that no one who needs help is left out.