SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Monday a summit between her brother and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won't happen if Japan sticks to “its anachronistic” approach.
Kim Yo Jong's statement came after Takaichi told reporters last week that she had informed U.S. President Donald Trump during a summit in Washington that she had “a very strong desire” to meet Kim Jong Un.
“But this is not the one that comes true, as wanted or decided by Japan,” Kim Yo Jong said. “In order for the top leaders of the two countries to meet each other, Japan should first be determined to break with its anachronistic practice and habit.”
Kim Yo Jong, who is also a senior official, didn’t explicitly say what Japan's “anachronistic practice and habit" are. However, in 2024, she said in a statement that North Korea’s acceptance of a reported offer for a meeting by one of Takaichi’s predecessors would depend on Japan tolerating the North's nuclear weapons program and ignoring its past abductions of Japanese nationals. The meeting eventually didn’t occur.
In her latest statement carried by state media on Monday, Kim Yo Jong said: “I don’t want to see the prime minister of Japan coming to Pyongyang.” But she still described her rejection as “just my personal position,” suggesting she was pressuring Japan to make concessions.
Observers say North Korea likely aims for better ties with Japan to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies. Meanwhile, Tokyo wants to resolve the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea during the 1970s and 1980s.
After years of denial, North Korea acknowledged in a 2002 summit between Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, and then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese. North Korea allowed five of them to return to Japan. Japan believes more people might have been abducted and that some could still be alive.
Koizumi made a second visit to North Korea and met Kim Jong Il again in 2004, the last time the two nations held talks.
Chances for a North Korea-Japan summit remain slim as North Korea refuses to return to diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea since 2019. Trump, who met Kim Jong Un three times between 2018 and 2019, has repeatedly expressed his intentions of resuming dialogue with Kim, but the North Korean leader suggested he could only return to talks if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization" of North Korea.
Takaichi said that Trump expressed his support for the immediate resolution of the abductees’ cases and that he indicated he would “provide cooperation in various ways” concerning meeting Kim Jong Un.
FILE - Kim Yo Jong, a sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Two people were killed and several others badly hurt when an Air Canada regional jet struck a fire truck on a runway while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, officials said.
The pilot and copilot were killed in the late Sunday night collision, which crushed the nose of the aircraft, while around 40 passengers and crew members were taken to area hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most have since been released from treatment, authorities said Monday.
Two Port Authority employees who were traveling in the fire truck also suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.
The pilot and copilot were both based out of Canada, Garcia said during a news conference.
The airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. Monday to facilitate the investigation, which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a separate incident aboard a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor,” said Garcia, who deferred additional questions about the sequence of events leading up to the crash to the NTSB.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the aircraft, a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to a statement from the airline. The flight originated at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, the major airport serving Montreal.
LaGuardia is one of 35 major airports across the country equipped with an advanced surface surveillance system that uses radar and data from locator systems on planes to alert controllers to potential conflicts on runways.
Photos and videos from the scene showed severe damage to the front of the aircraft, with cables and debris hanging from a mangled cockpit. Nearby, a damaged emergency vehicle lay on its side.
Stairways used to evacuate passengers from the aircraft were pushed up to the emergency exits on the jet, a Bombardier CRJ. The impact left the jet with its crumpled nose tilted upward.
In the moments before the crash, an air traffic controller could be heard on a radio transmission giving clearance to a vehicle to cross part of the tarmac, then trying to stop it.
“Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says. The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.
Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused long delays at airport security checkpoints in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.
As passengers straggled out of the airport into the dark early Monday, some described having arrived at LaGuardia hours before their flight, hoping to beat the lines.
Arturo Davidson said his Miami-bound flight was on the tarmac Sunday night when fellow passengers saw the collision or its aftermath and reactions rippled through the cabin.
The passengers were soon told there had been an accident. About 20 minutes later, they were informed the airport was closing and they must return to the terminal, he said later Monday, gazing at a departure board filled with cancellations.
“I don’t think we’re going at two,” he sighed, referring to the time Monday afternoon that officials gave as the earliest for reopening LaGuardia.
LaGuardia was 19th busiest in 2024 out of more than 500 U.S. airports, with over 16.7 million passengers boarding there, according to a 2025 FAA database.
The airport, which opened to commercial traffic in 1939, covers 680 acres (275 hectares) and borders Flushing and Bowery bays in Queens. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey describes it as “one of the nation’s leading domestic gateways for business and leisure travel” in its 2024 Airport Traffic Report.
A Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle lays on its side off of runway 4 after colliding with an Air Canada jet after it landed at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle after landing in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Firetrucks lineup outside LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, in New York, after an Air Canada Jet collided with a Port Authority vehicle on a runway. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Firetrucks lineup outside LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, in New York, after an Air Canada Jet collided with a Port Authority vehicle on a runway. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
FILE - A control tower is seen at Laguardia International Airport on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)
An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
