Seoul, April 25 -- As Vietnam approaches the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and nation reunification on April 30, Ahn Byung Chan, a former reporter for the Republic of Korea (RoK)'s Hankook Ilbo newspaper, well known for his reports from Southern Vietnam before 1975, recalled memories of those days 50 years ago.

Ahn was the last Korean journalist to leave Sai Gon (now Ho Chi Minh City) on the early morning of April 30, 1975 on the flight that he believed the last one from the US Embassy's building rooftop on April 30.

As a correspondent for one of the RoK's largest newspapers, he was both the first to arrive in the South and the last to leave. Ahn said he spent about three years in Southern Vietnam, so he can remember a...