As President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un prepare this week for their second summit, recent CBS News polling has found that few Americans believe North Korea has reduced its nuclear program since the leaders met last year, and most said they did not favor another summit now.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans (including a majority of Republicans) don’t think North Korea has changed its nuclear program since the first summit in Singapore in June last year, according to a CBS News poll conducted late last month. Just 17 percent believe the country has reduced their program.
While most Republicans said they didn’t believe North Korea reduced its nuclear program, they said they supported a second Trump-Kim meeting. Seventy percent of Republicans said a meeting should take place, but most Democrats (77 percent) and independents (57 percent) disagreed.
Views on Mr. Trump’s handling of North Korea were also largely driven by partisanship, according to a recent CBS News Poll. Fifty-seven percent of Americans overall expressed little or no confidence in the president on this, but almost nine in 10 of those in his own party said they had a lot or some confidence in his handling of North Korea.
Fewer Americans see North Korea as a threat requiring U.S. military action than did two years ago. Only 16 percent viewed North Korea as a threat needing military action in recent polling, down from 29 percent in 2017. Most (69 percent) think the country can be contained.
In a CBS News poll conducted immediately after last year’s summit in June, a majority (56 percent) of Americans did not think North Korea would end its nuclear program. Still, more thought the meeting moved the two countries more toward peace (31 percent) than war (6 percent); most said it was too soon to say.
Most of the findings in this analysis are based on a CBS News survey conducted by YouGov of 1,596 U.S. residents interviewed online between January 28-31, 2019. Full poll is here.
