(Xinhua)    09:25, July 23, 2017

As the White House continues to weigh its options to deal with the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, a new poll found that a majority of Americans believe the United States should mostly use diplomacy instead of military action.

According to the NBC/SurveyMonkey National Security poll released early this week, 59 percent of Americans believe that U.S. President Donald Trump should mostly use diplomacy in dealing with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), compared to 35 percent who favor military action over diplomacy.

Opinions about how the Trump administration should handle the issue differ largely by party, the poll also found.

While 76 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaners prefer diplomacy to military action in dealing with the DPRK nuclear issue, 56 percent of Republican and Republican-leaners say the United States should mostly use military action.

Tension has remained high on the Korean Peninsula over the past months between the United States and the DPRK over the U.S. threat to stage military attacks against Pyongyang in response to its nuclear and missile programs.

The United States and South Korea also held their largest-ever joint military exercises in the past months. At the end of April, the USS Carl Vinson nuclear aircraft carrier task group arrived in the waters off the Korean Peninsula for a separate joint naval exercise with South Korea.

However, a joint statement by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said in April that Trump aims to use economic sanctions and diplomatic measures to pressure the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs.

The statement also said that the United States remained "open to negotiations" toward peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while staying "prepared to defend ourselves and our allies."

(Web editor: Jiang Jie, Bianji)