The top U.S. military commander on the Korean peninsula said Saturday that the material needed for North Korea to make nuclear bombs is still intact, even after an historic summit in Singapore aimed at denuclearizing Pyongyang. 
 
 North Korea's nuclear "production capability is still intact," Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, told the Aspen Security Forum via teleconference. “We haven't seen a complete shutdown of production yet. We have not seen a removal of fuel rods." 
 
 Brooks comments come a little more than a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sat down for the first time with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss denuclearization. They also echoed a Washington Post report on Sunday, which detailed Trump’s private frustrations with the lack of progress between Washington and Pyongyang since the Singapore meeting. 
 
 "There has to be demonstrable action in that direction, or we cannot be satisfied and we probably can't be friends and we probably won't be at peace," Brooks said, speaking about the North's path to give up its nuclear weapons. 
 
 "Thus far, those steps have not been taken," Brooks added. 
 
 Read more: A timeline of North Korea's defiant rocket launches in 2017 
 
 Brooks noted that it was important to not "overreact to things like that" while diplomats work to resolve tensions, and build trust between Washington and Pyongyang. 
 
 "Building that trust while that pressure continues and while the efforts for diplomacy continue is the order of the day. In many ways the lack of trust is the enemy we now have to defeat," Brooks said. "That's really where we are right now," he added. 
 
 Last month an NBC News report, citing U.S. intelligence assessments, said that North Korea had increased production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months. Sunday's report in the Post cited unnamed diplomats saying that North Korean officials have canceled follow-up meetings, demanded more money and failed to maintain basic communications. 
 
 The BBC and Post's reporting appeared to counter sentiments expressed by Trump, who tweeted after the unprecedented June 12 summit with Kim that “there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.” 
 
 Meanwhile, under Kim, the reclusive state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile, and threatened to send missiles into the waters near Guam. 
 
 Since 2011, North Korea has fired more than 85 missiles and four nuclear weapons tests — which is more than what his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched over a period of 27 years. 
 
 What's more, North Korea is the only nation to have tested nuclear weapons this century. 
 
 --CNBC's Javier E. David contributed to this article. ||||| A top U.S. military official called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “a man of his word” while backing up assertions by other key officials that talks with Pyongyang are making progress. 
 
 The commander of U.S. Forces-Korea, General Vincent Brooks, said that since North Korea’s last missile launch in November 2017, language and actions from Pyongyang have “signaled a change in direction, perhaps a change in calculus that we had been looking for.” 
 
 Brooks spoke Saturday to an audience at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, via videolink. 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have repeatedly expressed optimism about the ongoing talks with North Korea since Trump and Kim met in Singapore last month. 
 
 On Friday, Pompeo said he and the president remained “upbeat” about the prospects that North Korea will move ahead with complete and verifiable denuclearization. 
 
 ​Boosting nuclear fuel? 
 
 Still, some in the intelligence community have voiced skepticism that Pyongyang can be trusted, and there are reports that rather than scale back its activities, the North Koreans have actually boosted production of nuclear fuel. 
 
 Satellite imagery and U.S. intelligence officials have also pointed to evidence of continued work at multiple secret sites across the country. 
 
 Brooks declined to confirm or deny those reports Saturday, and acknowledged the threat remains. 
 
 “We haven’t seen a complete shutdown of production yet. We have not seen a removal of fuel rods,” he said. “These types of things tell us there are still steps that must be taken on the road to denuclearization.” 
 
 But Brooks expressed hope those steps are in the works. 
 
 “To be sure, the physical threats and capabilities are still in place, but it’s evident in words and actions that the intent to use them has changed,” he said. 
 
 “[Kim Jong Un] has really demonstrated he is a man of his word in a number of ways,” Brooks said. “We will take him at his word.” 
 
 ​Some skepticism 
 
 Still, some in the U.S. are skeptical, waiting for additional proof North Korea and Kim have changed. 
 
 “I don’t think we ought to be making any concessions until they [North Korea] really start moving forward in a very strong, concrete, positive way to denuclearization, which I interpret to be they dismantle their nuclear capability,” the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican Mike McCaul of Texas, said at the Aspen conference. 
 
 McCaul also echoed calls by top U.S. diplomats for stronger enforcement on sanctions against Pyongyang. 
 
 “This is not the time to be putting the brakes on maximum pressure,” he said. “This is a time be putting the accelerator on.” 
 
 Sue Mi Terry, a former senior CIA analyst, also voiced reservations that Kim can be trusted. 
 
 “I don’t see any sign that North Koreans have committed to denuclearization,” she said. “We don’t have a deal yet between United States and North Korea. We only have the Singapore declaration, which everybody knows is vague, is aspirational.” 
 
 VOA’s Margaret Besheer and Steve Herman contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) The top US military commander on the Korean peninsula said Friday that even as the United States and North Korea work on easing tensions and working toward denuclearization, diplomacy between the two nations was operating in an environment "void of trust." 
 
 Speaking by teleconference to the Aspen Security Forum, Gen. Vincent Brooks said the peninsula had "gone now 235 days without a provocation." On November 28 last year, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that it claimed could reach the US mainland. Since then, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his regime had done all the testing it needed to do, and dismantled at least one test site. 
 
 During his summit with President Donald Trump in June, he reportedly promised the US leader that he would also take apart another site , but it is not clear whether that has occurred. 
 
 "Our challenge now candidly is to continue to make progress but to make that progress in an environment that is essentially void of trust, and without trust we'll find it difficult to move forward," said Brooks, the commander of US forces in Korea, who is also in charge of the United Nations command and the combined South Korea-US forces command. 
 
 "So building that trust while that pressure continues and while the efforts for diplomacy continue is the order of the day. In many ways the lack of trust is the enemy we now have to defeat," he said. 
 
 'The world is a gangster' 
 
 The most recent diplomatic foray by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang earlier in July was not particularly successful. 
 
 Pompeo, who was expected to see Kim Jong Un during the visit, left North Korea without meeting the dictator. His plane had barely taken off from Pyongyang international airport when North Korean state media announced the regime's displeasure with the way the talks had gone. 
 
 "We expected the US to bring constructive measures to build confidence in accordance with the spirit of the US-NK Summit," the statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA said. 
 
 "However, the attitude of the US in the first high-level talks held on the 6th and 7th were indeed regrettable." 
 
 The United States displayed a "gangster-mindset" during the talks, the North Koreans said. 
 
 Pompeo pushed back soon after. 
 
 "If those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster," he said, adding that the two sides "had detailed, substantive conversations about the next steps toward a fully verified and complete denuclearization." 
 
 "No one's been closer to that than I have," he told Fox News on Thursday. "Everyone else is simply speculating. I've been there." 
 
 He added that the North Koreans "have consistently reaffirmed their commitment" to the deal agreed to by Trump and Kim in Singapore. 
 
 "No one was in any confusion that this was going to happen in hours or days," he said, adding that discussions are continuing and the country has a "bright future." 
 
 Demonstrable action 'or we cannot be satisfied' 
 
 Gen. Brooks argued that the "maximum pressure" campaign the United States instituted last year, pushing punishing sanctions on the Kim regime, coupled with intensified military pressure, had contributed to compelling North Korea to engage with the international community. 
 
 With Kim's noted promise to denuclearize the peninsula must, however, also come viable action that backs up the promise, Brooks said. 
 
 "There has to be demonstrable action in that direction or we cannot be satisfied and we probably can't be friends and we probably won't be at peace," Brooks told the audience. "So we have to see something moving in both directions in order to get us there." 
 
 From his perch in South Korea, Brooks said he has seen some changes in the pattern of behavior and training of North Korea's million-plus army, the majority of which are positioned between Pyongyang and Seoul. 
 
 He said he has seen some reduction in training readiness from North Korean troops. 
 
 "They have to alternate their training with harvesting and planting. We've seen some changes in terms of how much time they're spending in the field. Some of that might be attributed to fuel shortages; some of that might be because of the renewed engagement," he said. 
 
 He also noted that in terms of what North Korea has promised to do regarding the denuclearization process, nothing has actually changed on the ground. 
 
 "Let's say their production capability is still intact," he said. "We haven't seen a complete shutdown of production. We have not seen removal of fuel rods. There still steps that must be taken on the road to denuclearization." 
 
 Transfer of human remains 
 
 Brooks said at least some remains of Americans killed during the Korean War would be brought back to the United States. 
 
 "We are confident we'll succeed in transferring some of the remains. Not all of them, but some of them," he said. "The pain of those families is as acute today as it was then." 
 
 At least one US official told CNN on July 17 that North Korea would return the first set of possible US service member remains on July 27 , the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that signaled the end of the Korean war. 
 
 On that day in 1953, Chinese, North Korean and UN forces signed the armistice, which also established the parameters of the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. 
 
 On June 24, US forces in South Korea sent 100 wooden transport cases to the Demilitarized Zone to prepare to receive the remains. 
 
 The date of their return has been unclear. On July 12, North Korean officials did not turn up to a meeting with US officials at the DMZ where they were set to discuss the repatriation of the remains. 
 
 Brooks downplayed possible posturing by North Korea as the discussions between the two countries continue, saying that diplomacy takes time. This includes, he said, reports of North Korea stepping up its nuclear production activity 
 
 "We don't overreact to things like that," he said. "If those things are true, what does it mean to us as we go forward? It could mean several things. We know what our end point is and we know what they've agreed to, so let's keep our eye on that and not get distracted."
– President Trump declared North Korea was "no longer a nuclear threat" after his summit last month with Kim Jong Un, but the latest assessment from the Korean Peninsula's top US military commander offers a different take. The North's nuclear "production capability is still intact," Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, via a video link, told Aspen Security Forum attendees Saturday, adding that there's been no "complete shutdown" and no sign of fuel rods being removed. CNBC notes that what Brooks is saying jibes with a Washington Post report Sunday on a frustrated Trump and "stiff resistance from a North Korean team practiced in the art of delay and obfuscation." Some of that resistance has included canceled follow-up meetings, requests for more money, and a lack of communication, as well as a still-intact missile-engine testing site Trump vowed would be dismantled. "There has to be demonstrable action [toward denuclearization] or we cannot be satisfied and we probably can't be friends and we probably won't be at peace," Brooks said, per CNBC, though he stressed it was critical not to "overreact" and for the US and the North to build trust. He also expressed hope that steps toward denuclearization would happen. "[Kim] has really demonstrated he is a man of his word in a number of ways," Brooks said, per Voice of America. Others didn't share his optimism. "This is not the time to be putting the brakes on maximum pressure," said Rep. Mike McCaul, head of the House Homeland Security Committee. "This is a time [to] be putting the accelerator on." Brooks also relayed that the remains of "some" Americans killed in the Korean War would make their way home, per CNN. "The pain of those families is as acute today as it was then," he told the forum.