At least 69 percent of US voters responding to a TYDN-CNN-ABC-Politico telephone survey said they were extremely nervous that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, was bluffing when he claimed he had the technology to strike the District of Columbia.
However, the latest survey of 45,000 voters was a major boost to US President Donald Trump. Just last week, 75 percent of respondents said they hoped Pyongyang would follow through on its threats.
Credit: Korean Central News Agency |
"This is a remarkable turn of events in only a week's time. There are thousands of fewer Americans today who want to see this launch go through," Dexter Margolian, the lead researcher on the survey, told TheYellowDailyNews in an exclusive interview. "We were really surprised by the numbers. We thought more Americans would want Pyongyang to succeed, for a change of pace in Washington if for no other reason."
President Trump, speaking to reporters here at the Rose Garden, blasted the Americans who sided with the Hermit kingdom.
"Fake citizens," Trump said.
War games
The survey did not ask respondents for their political affiliation. The poll had a margin of error of zero percentage points, the researchers said.
The poll comes a week before the US and South Korean militaries engage in their annual summer war games along the Korean penninsula—a move that is expected to spark even more rhetoric between Trump and Kim. North Korea's leader says the drills are a dress rehearsal for an invasion of the North.
The developments come a week after Pyongyang and Washington threatened to annihilate each other with nuclear weapons. In response, many Western schools instituted duck-and-cover drills reminiscent of the Cold War.