POLLS SHOWS 70% FIND TRUMP RHETORIC ON NORTH KOREA

According to a recent poll released on Wednesday, the vast majority of voters find President Donald Trump's escalating rhetoric on North Korea to be "not helpful."

In fact, 70% of respondents in the Fox News survey did not approve of Trump's comments on North Korea, which have included warnings of "fire and fury" being unleashed against the foreign state and its annihilation if it continues to ignore calls from the international community to tamp down its militaristic ambitions. 

Only 23% of voters believed that Trump's words were improving matters.

Threats of military action (the main tactic that Trump has relied on when dealing with North Korea) also received strong disapproval, with only 27% supporting this method and 61% instead preferring that the US seek diplomatic options. 

During Trump's address to the UN General Assembly last week, the president derided North Korea's leader, Kim Jon Un – calling him "Little Rocket Man" and making threats to "totally destroy" the country if it continued with its weapons tests in the Korean Peninsula.

The country's foreign minister said on Monday that Trump's words were "clearly a declaration of war" – which the White House later dismissed as absurd. 

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho added that Trump's comments have given North Korea "every right to take countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not yet in the airspace border of our country."

Trump tried to defend his comments on Tuesday by saying they were merely a reply to Kim for "acting very badly."

An increasing number of voters do not approve of Trump's handling of North Korea in general, rising from 45% who disapproved in July to 50% in August, and now 55% in September.

Voters also disapproved of Trump's comments on Iran by a more than 2-to-1 ratio – 59% compared with 27% who approved. Trump railed against the United States' handling of Iran under President Barack Obama throughout the 2016 campaign – particularly targeting Obama's signature Iran nuclear deal. 

The Fox News poll used 1,017 randomly picked registered voters via landline and cellphones between September 24th and September 26th, and had a margin of sampling error of approximately 3 percentage points.