Half of Americans back Trump’s handling of N. Korea

Over half of the Americans assessed that U.S. President Donald Trump did a good job in the handling of North Korea at the historic North Korea–U.S. summit, according to the result by the public opinion poll released on Wednesday. A mere one third of the respondents said that the risk of North Korea–U.S. nuclear war was lowered due to this summit.

Reuters revealed on Wednesday, that according to an online survey conducted by Reuters and Ipsos, a market research group, of 1,000 adult voters of the United States (400 democratic and republican supporters, respectively, and 200 independent voters), 51 percent of the respondents answered that “President Trump did a good job at the negotiation with North Korea.” Although only 30 percent of the Democratic supporters said “yes” on whether Mr. Trump did a good job at handling North Korea, this figure is 18 percent higher than the approval rating of President Trump (12percent).

Thirty-nine percent of the voters answered that the risk of nuclear war decreased through this North Korea-U.S. summit. Thirty-seven percent of them responded that “nothing changed through this summit,” while the remaining 34 percent answered that they “do not know.”

In addition, those who saw that the commitment of North Korea and the United States on “complete denuclearization” will be kept till the end was 26 percent, while 40 percent of the respondents, which is 14 percentage points higher than such figure, expressed negative opinions that “the two countries will not stick to their promises.”

For the question “who should take the most credit for the summit,” 40 percent of the respondents say Mr. Trump should take the most credit, followed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in at 11 percent and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at 7 percent.


wizi@donga.com