Aug 11, 2017 - Politics & Policy
82% of Americans fear nuclear war with North Korea
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Most Americans are both paying attention to the news surrounding the nuclear threat from North Korea and worried about the potential for war, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm, given exclusively to Axios.
The poll was commissioned by Vote Vets, a progressive PAC focused on issues affecting veterans and troops.
Some highlights from the poll:
- 91% of Americans have paid at least some attention to the North Korea news with 63% giving a lot of attention to the issue. Those numbers were pretty constant among both parties.
- 54% of both Democrats and Republicans felt that war between the United States and North Korea is somewhat close — while 26% of Democrats and 23% of Republicans think it's very close.
- Diplomacy favored: Sizable majorities in both parties (82% of Democrats, 68% of Republicans) favor exhausting all diplomatic options in order to avoid war, and even bigger majorities (90% of Democrats, 80% of Republicans) support direct talks with North Korea before military action.
- An area of disagreement: While a plurality of Americans oppose a preemptive military strike to disable North Korea's nuclear capabilities, the parties themselves disagree — a majority of Republicans would support it while a majority of Democrats would be opposed.
