NORTH KOREA
<strong>Next nuclear test ‘ready’</strong>
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin on Monday said Pyongyang has completed preparations for a new nuclear test. After talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, Park said Pyongyang would pay a price if it goes ahead, as feared, with what would be its seventh nuclear test in the coming days. Apart from sanctions, Park did not say what price Pyongyang would pay or outline how the deterrence policy would change, but Blinken said the US and treaty allies South Korea and Japan could adjust their military postures in response. CHINA
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Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) will meet with top UK officials on Monday in London to discuss security and Ukraine. She will also collect the Grotius Prize awarded to her last week.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.”
China denies the allegations.
Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour.
The US