About half of Americans are very concerned about the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons. Yonhap

Around half of Americans are very concerned about the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons, a new poll showed Monday as the two nations gear up for another summit aimed at removing that danger.

According to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 52 percent of those surveyed said they are "very" or "extremely" concerned that North Korea's nuclear program poses a direct threat to the United States.

Another 32 percent said they are "moderately" concerned, while 15 percent said they are not very concerned or not concerned at all.

The survey was conducted on 1,062 adults from Jan. 16-20 as a senior North Korean official was in Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the countries' next summit.

The White House said after the meetings that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hold a second summit near the end of February at a location to be announced in the future.

At their first summit, in Singapore in June 2018, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees for Pyongyang.

The historic first-ever meeting between leaders of the Korean War foes came after months of heightened tensions over North Korea's sixth nuclear test and multiple tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017. Trump and Kim also exchanged threats and personal insults.

The survey had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. (Yonhap)