MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Koreans maintain that launching a strike would be a necessary precautionary measure, a poll conducted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a private Seoul-based think tank, found, as cited by the Yonhap News Agency.
The poll also said that 60 percent of South Korean citizens favored the idea of their country developing its own nuclear weapons, which is a 6.5 percent drop in opinion from 2013.
In July 2016, Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy the THAAD system in South Korea's Seongju County amid growing tensions in the region spurred by North Korea's ballistic and nuclear tests.
Pyongyang has successfully conducted five nuclear tests, including two last year, and has frequently made statements about the advancement of its nuclear program. Earlier this month, the North Korean Foreign Ministry announced that the country was ready to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) "anytime and anywhere".
