10 things you need to know today: April 18, 2017

Headlines for today … here they are!

The Fifth Column

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THE WEEK

1. Pence reassures Japan of U.S. resolve to rein in North Korea Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. would stand by Japan “100 percent” and keep pushing until North Korea curbs its missile and nuclear weapons programs. Pence, arriving after a visit to South Korea, said the U.S. had demonstrated its resolve with recent strikes in Syria and Afghanistan, and that “all options are on the table” but President Trump “is determined to work closely with Japan, with South Korea, with all our allies in the region and with China to achieve a peaceable resolution and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” Kim In Ryong, North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador, said the U.S. focus on the North Korean nuclear program reflected a “gangster-like logic” that’s turning the Korean Peninsula into “the world’s biggest hotspot,” creating “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may…

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