Fox News Poll:53% Favor Military Action to Stop North Korea Nukes Program
It will take military force to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, a majority of voters believe -- and they tend to favor the U.S. taking that action.
That’s according to the latest national Fox News Poll of registered voters.
Fifty-one percent say that U.S. military action will be required to keep the rouge nation from continuing its nuclear weapons program, while 36 percent think diplomacy alone can stop it.
By a 53-39 percent margin, voters favor the U.S. using military force to keep North Korea from making further advancements on nukes.
North Korea is seen as the greatest immediate threat to the United States. Some 38 percent feel that way, while 25 percent think ISIS is the biggest threat and 18 percent say Russia.
Five percent think China poses the biggest risk and just four percent say Iran.
Meanwhile, 42 percent of voters oppose the Iran nuclear agreement, 35 percent support it and 23 percent are unable to give an opinion. The agreement eases U.S. sanctions for 10 years in exchange for Iran stopping its nuclear program over that time period. In September 2015, when the deal was first made, 56 percent opposed it.
Voters give President Trump mixed marks for his handling of North Korea: 45 percent approve vs. 47 percent disapprove.
His ratings are a bit better on handling China (49-40 percent) and Syria (48-45 percent), and a bit worse on Iran (43-44 percent). Trump’s worst marks are on Russia (40-52 percent).
Forty-three percent of voters approve of the president’s handling of foreign policy in general (49 percent disapprove).
Overall, 45 percent approve of the job Trump’s doing as president, while 48 percent disapprove.
Views among partisans
Across the board, voters think North Korea poses the greatest danger to the country today. ISIS comes in second among Republicans and independents, while Democrats put Russia above ISIS on the threat list.
Democrats are more likely to think diplomacy alone will work with North Korea (by 13 points). Republicans (by 46 points) and independents (by 21 points) say force will be necessary to stop their nuclear weapons program.
In addition, Republicans (73 percent) are twice as likely as Democrats (36 percent) to favor the U.S. taking military action to prevent North Korea from continuing work on nukes. Fifty-one percent of independents favor using force.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,009 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from April 23-25, 2017. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.