TURNING UP THE PRESSURE: The U.S. strategy to try to get North Korea to forsake its nuclear and ballistic missile program is slowly being revealed. It is, in a nutshell, to greatly increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang, while making the possible use of military force seem far more credible.

Speaking this morning in Tokyo, Vice President Mike Pence said, “All options are on the table and there they will remain. But President Trump and I, and our administration believe, the most productive pathway forward is dialogue among the family of nations that can pressure and isolate North Korea into abandoning permanently and dismantling permanently its nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile program.” Pence said the time has come for the international community to join together to meet the North Korean threat, and vowed, “We will not rest and we will not relent until we achieve the objective of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.”