U.S. military commander says 'close watch' needed on N. Korean leader Kim Jong Un

An outgoing commander of U.S. military forces has said close watch si needed on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The commander on the Korean Peninsula said Jong Un has successfully consolidated power, even as he has dashed international hopes that he might turn out to be a reformer.

Army General James D. Thurman, who is retiring and will leave his post this week as the commander of 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, said that it is clear that he's in charge of North Korea, adding that the US military got to keep a close watch on him, every day.

According to the Washington Post, Thurman made his comments on the same day that South Korea celebrated the founding of its armed forces with the country's biggest military parade in a decade.

Thurman is handing over command of U.S. forces in Korea to Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, a former high-ranking commander in Afghanistan, who most recently served as director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon.

Tensions have increased in the region since North Korea tested a nuclear bomb in February and Kim threatened attacks on U.S. military bases in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia, the report said.

Thurman said one lesson from that period was the need to take such threats seriously without overreacting in public.

Other U.S. military and defense officials said Kim's personality and intentions are still hard to pin down.