Poll: Here's What Americans Want Done About North Korea

The number of Americans who support sending U.S. ground forces to South Korea if dictator Kim Jong-un invades from the North jumped from 26 percent in 1990 to a staggering 62 percent, a new poll shows.

Meanwhile, the war of words between President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart continued to sink in on investors, with CNBC reporting that global markets and U.S. stock futures fell Thursday morning. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all fell for two straight sessions, the first time in more than a month.

Breaking down polling information from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the stats group Statista said the while the clear majority of those polled supported troops to help South Korea repel an invasion, it said only 28 percent supported sending troops in to destroy the North’s nukes.

Related link: The US Relationship With Guam, Explained

Most People Support Tougher Sanctions To Control Nukes

Trump taunted North Korea earlier this week by saying "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. ... And as I said, they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before."

North Korea quickly responded by threatening to fire missiles at the U.S. territory of Guam. The United States has 4,250 active troops in Guam and about 23,500 in South Korea.

Here’s how dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program breaks down:

• Tighten economic sanctions on the North: 76 percent.
• Impose sanctions on companies doing business with China: 68 percent.
• Conduct air strikes on North Korea’s nukes: 40 percent.
• Send U.S. troops to destroy nuclear weapons: 28 percent.
• Let North Korea keep the nukes it has, but produce no more: 21 percent.
• Accept that North Korea will keep on producing nuclear weapons: 11 percent.

How It Came To This

Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II, after which the Soviet Union occupied the North and the United States the South as the superpowers divided much of the post-war world into spheres of influence.

The North, aided mostly by China after Soviet ruler Josef Stalin gave Chinese leader Mao Zedong his permission, invaded the South in 1950. A U.S.-led United Nations coalition was deployed to repel that invasion. Early in the war, the Communist North controlled almost the whole peninsula and, later, the South pushed northward almost to the river forming the border with China.

The back-and-forth war of attrition led to the South Korean capital, Seoul, changing hands four times. A peace was negotiated in 1953, with the frontline for much of the war, the 38th Parallel, forming the border.

Tensions since then have been high, but never as high as they seem now.

______

Image Credit: By The White House from Washington, DC (Photo of the Day: 8/3/17) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons