TOKYO (AP) — A South Korean national holding a banner carrying political messages was arrested Wednesday for allegedly obstructing an annual spring festival at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese police said.
The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression before and during World War II, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.
The 64-year-old suspect held up a banner carrying messages including one urging “war criminals” to stop praying at Yasukuni and another making territorial claims on an island disputed between Japan and South Korea.
The man stood at the main shrine gate and in front of vehicles carrying messengers from the emperor, Kyodo News agency said. The messengers were scheduled to deliver offerings from the emperor, the shrine said on its website.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who used to regularly pray at the shrine, sent a religious ornament instead for the second time as Japan's leader, triggering criticism from China and South Korea.
A group of more than 100 right-wing lawmakers, including a Cabinet minister, prayed at the shrine on Wednesday.
Associated Press video journalist Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.
FILE - People wait in queue before reaching to the front to pray at the main hall at Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 15, 2024, as the country marks the 79th anniversary of its defeat in the World War II. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that she's considering possible sanctions against the government of Chihuahua — a state bordering Texas — for allowing CIA agents to participate in an operation to dismantle drug laboratories, because any security collaboration with the U.S. should be approved by Mexico's federal government.
Sheinbaum's comments came after days of contradictions by authorities following the death of two U.S. officials in a vehicle crash over the weekend as they returned from destroying a clandestine drug lab in northern Mexico. The CIA’s involvement was confirmed Tuesday to The Associated Press by a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
“There cannot be agents from any U.S. government institution operating in the Mexican field,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing. She said that such activities aren't part of the current security protocols or the formal understanding between Mexico and the United States.
Two Mexican investigators also were killed in the crash, which Mexican authorities said occurred while the convoy was returning from an operation to destroy drug labs of criminal groups. There have been discrepancies in the public accounts of what happened from U.S. and Mexican officials, which experts say underscores heightened U.S. involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.
Sheinbaum acknowledged Wednesday that the Mexican army participated in the operation — as its mandate includes supporting individual states. However, she emphasized that the federal government was unaware of the U.S. agents’ presence.
Sheinbaum ruled out the possibility that the incident constitutes a new strategy by the Trump administration, which has demanded greater action from Mexico in the fight against drug cartels.
Later in the day, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said at a news conference that while Mexico's federal government constantly exchanges information with the U.S., foreign “agents have never been in the field with us."
Sheinbaum said that she sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador requesting that he provide all available information regarding the incident. She also said that she plans to speak with Chihuahua Gov. María Eugenia Campos.
“It is very important that something like this not be allowed to go unaddressed,” she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed to take action on Mexican cartels — an intervention that Sheinbaum has said is “unnecessary.”
David Klepper and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)
