Vietnamese girl in iconic photo 43 years later

Image 1 of 4

▼

In this June 8, 1972, file photo, 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, runs with her brothers and cousins, after a South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on its own troops and civilians.(AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - It has been nearly 43 years since Kim Phuc, 52, was immortalized in a photo moments after being severely burned. The photo, taken by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Nick Ut, 65, showed then 9-year-old Phuc, terrified, running naked after he clothes were burned off in an accidental drop of flaming napalm by a South Vietnamese plane.

Esquire magazine reports the two have been friends ever since that photo graced the cover of the NY Times the morning after.

Phuc and Ut were recently reunited in Miami where Phuc is receiving laser treatments to smooth her scar tissue.

Ut went to work again, photographing Phuc. The photos were published on Monday by the Associated Press.

"He's the beginning and the end," Phuc told the AP. "He took my picture and now he'll be here with me with this new journey, new chapter."

Phuc now lives with her husband in Canada and Ut continues to photograph world events.