By Kim Tae-gyu
Six out of 10 U.S. citizens support military intervention if North Korea attacks South Korea, according to a recent poll by CNN and ORC International.
Out of 1,012 adult Americans questioned by telephone between April 5 and 7, 61 percent answered that they think the United States should use military force if Seoul is attacked by Pyongyang.
The proportion was 57 percent in 2010 and 45 percent in 1994 but has topped the 60-percent level amid the recent missile and nuclear threats by North Korea in spite of U.N. sanctions.
The isolated regime has continued its relentless verbal attacks against the South and the U.S. It is also widely expected to test fire an intermediate-range missile this week.
Against this backdrop, 51 percent of respondents said the lingering North Korean crisis cannot be addressed through non-military approaches such as diplomatic or economic efforts.
The proportion was 35 percent in 2006 and increased to 44 percent last year then surpassing 50 percent this month.
“For the first time, Americans are pessimistic that the situation involving North Korea can be resolved using only economic and diplomatic means,” CNN director Keating Holland said.
“On previous occasions when tensions with North Korea were running high, most Americans thought that diplomacy would be enough, although that number has dropped over the years as those tensions have reemerged time after time.”
Asked about the seriousness of the North’s threat to the U.S., 41 percent said the belligerent regime poses an immediate threat to the country and another 41 percent said Pyongyang is a long-term threat. Just 16 percent said the North was not a threat.
Americans who characterized the totalitarian state as an immediate threat was merely 20 percent in 2006, then rose to 25 percent in 2009, 26 percent in 2010 and 28 percent midway through last month.
“If North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanted to get the attention of the American public, his strategy is starting to work,” Holland said.
“The 41 percent who now consider North Korean an immediate threat to the United States is up 13 percentage points in less than a month.”