Most Americans oppose war with Pyongyang: DPRK media

PYONGYANG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) media have said that most Americans favor a diplomatic solution to the Korean peninsula crisis and oppose resorting to war as promulgated by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary Monday that "such opinion that Trump might order a preemptive attack on the DPRK is widely spreading among former and incumbent officials of the U.S. administration, media and experts."

The commentary said some U.S. media are claiming "the war chariot of the Trump administration began to move" and "it is reminiscent of the Bush administration preparing for a war against Iraq."

However, there is widespread concern and criticism among Americans that "if a war with north Korea breaks out, a disaster more terrible than the one during the Second World War might be brought to the U.S. mainland," said the KCNA.

Former U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Michael Smith and 57 other ex-generals of the U.S. army said in an open letter to Trump that military action of the United States and its allies may invite immediate retaliatory shelling by the DPRK which would cause "hundreds of thousands of casualties."

Charles V. Pena, former director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute, said war will cause at least one million casualties and an economic loss of one trillion U.S. dollars.

The commentary also said results of the opinion poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC found that at least 70 percent of the respondents said no to the preemptive strike, and 82 percent of them expressed serious concern that a military attack could escalate into a large-scale war.

The U.S. magazine Newsweek reported the opinion poll results that two thirds of Americans remain opposed to war with the DPRK, it added. Enditem