WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- With tensions running high on the Korean Peninsula, a majority of Americans say that U.S. President Donald Trump's war of words with Pyongyang is making the situation worse, a new poll said on Wednesday.

According to the poll by Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 65 percent of Americans think Trump's recent remarks regarding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have made the situation worse.

Only eight percent think Trump is making the situation better, said the poll.

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump threatened that the United States "will have no choice but to totally destroy" DPRK if forced to defend itself or its allies.

Before that, he made an unusually stern warning to the DPRK on Aug. 8 when he said that the DPRK "will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" before.

Despite Trump's threats, top officials in his administration, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have stressed on many occasions that U.S. effort to handle the DPRK nuclear issue is led by diplomacy.