Poll: Most favor N. Korea military action

WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- About 57 percent of U.S. voters favor a military response to eliminate North Korea's missile-launching capability, a poll released Monday indicates.

The Rasmussen Reports poll, conducted April 3-4 in the two days immediately prior to Pyongyang's internationally condemned weekend test-firing of a three-stage rocket, found that support for a military response comes from 66 percent of Republicans, 52 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of unaffiliated voters.

The question of a military response to North Korea also showed no gender gap, the pollsters said – it was favored by 57 percent of men and 57 percent of women.

North Korea said the rocket was fired to launch a communications satellite into space, and so was not in violation of a United Nations prohibition against testing missiles that could be used to carry nuclear warheads. But U.S. defense officials said they had confirmed that no object was placed in orbit from the North Korean launch.