![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP72511429803.jpg.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSome 67 percent of Americans are very or extremely concerned about the threat North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons program poses to the United States. Four in 10 are concerned about the threat posed to where they live specifically, more so if they live in urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe (Trump) will be somewhere safe. We got nowhere to go,\u201d said Anthony Leroy Waters, 61, of Wilmington, North Carolina. He said he lives 30 miles from a nuclear power plant and fears the impact an attack could have on his locality. \u201cIt\u2019s scary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the poll, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to be concerned about where they live, 50 percent to 32 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, 68 percent of respondents say they are concerned about the threat posed to U.S. territories like Guam, and 69 percent are concerned about the threat to U.S. allies, such as Japan and South Korea \u2014 North Korea\u2019s neighbors. That concern registered higher among older Americans than younger ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 75 percent of Americans also think comments made by North Korean leaders have made the situation between the two countries worse. Eighty-three percent of Democrats and 70 percent of Republicans agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mui Baltrumas, 67, of Evanston, Illinois, dissented. He said the North Korean threat is being blown out of proportion and Kim is more calculating and \u201cnot nearly as crazy as everyone thinks he is.\u201d Baltrumas, who leans Democratic, said he was more concerned by the \u201cJohn Wayne-style machismo coming out of the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo long as we\u2019re looking at North Korea, we\u2019re not looking at problems in our own backyard. I think it\u2019s a nice, cheap political diversion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The AP-NORC poll of 1,150 adults was conducted Sept. 28-Oct. 2 using a sample drawn from NORC\u2019s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons development is spooking most Americans, and two-thirds of them say President Donald Trump\u2019s war of words with the isolated nation\u2019s leader is making the situation worse. Less than 1 in 10 thinks Trump\u2019s comments are making it better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":94581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"5":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"6":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"},"7":{"categories":["flashpoints","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"flashpoints"}}},"categories":[10,15,86],"tags":[],"coauthors":[307,2400],"class_list":["post-95346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HNFMIZGHFVF4XKFPKN3ZJABG6U","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/10\/11\/poll-most-say-trump-making-north-korea-situation-worse\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n