By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Thursday voiced&nbsp;mounting&nbsp;concern&nbsp;over&nbsp;Army&nbsp;Private&nbsp;Travis&nbsp;King, who dashed into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;two days ago, saying Pyongyang had a history of mistreating captured Americans.
U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, in her first public comments on the case, said Washington was fully mobilized in trying to contact Pyongyang, including through United Nations communications channels.
But&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;had yet to offer any response, officials said.
"I worry about him, frankly," Wormuth told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. She cited the case of Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student who was imprisoned in&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;for 17 months before dying shortly&nbsp;after&nbsp;he was returned to the United States in a coma in 2017.
"I worry about how they may treat him. So, (we) want to get him back."
At the White House, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also expressed concern: "This is not a country that is known for humane treatment of Americans - or frankly anybody else for that matter."
American officials remained stumped about why&nbsp;King&nbsp;ran across the border into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea. But Wormuth acknowledged he was likely worried about facing further disciplinary action&nbsp;from&nbsp;the Army upon his return home to the United States.
She said she was not aware of any information demonstrating the 23-year-old was a&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;sympathizer, and the Pentagon played down suggestions he might present an intelligence liability.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. Army's counter-intelligence office and U.S. forces in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;were carrying out an investigation into what drove&nbsp;King&nbsp;to make such a puzzling decision.
STILL ALIVE?
Singh declined to directly respond to a question about whether the Pentagon believed&nbsp;King&nbsp;was still alive. She said the U.S. military could not offer any information at all about&nbsp;King's status.
"We don't know his condition. We don't know where he's being held. We don't know the status&nbsp;of his health," Singh said, describing his formal status&nbsp;in the military as "AWOL," or absent without leave.
North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has remained silent about&nbsp;King&nbsp;and U.S. officials say Pyongyang has not responded to communication&nbsp;from&nbsp;the American military about the soldier.&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's state media, which has in the past reported on the detention of U.S. nationals, has not commented on the incident so far.
Speaking&nbsp;in Japan, U.S. special envoy for&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;Sung Kim said the United States was "working&nbsp;very hard" to determine&nbsp;King's status&nbsp;and well-being and is actively engaged in ensuring his safety and return. Kim did not provide any details.
King&nbsp;was on a civilian tour of the Panmunjom truce village on Tuesday when he dashed across the Military Demarcation Line that has separated the two&nbsp;Koreas since the&nbsp;Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953.
King&nbsp;had been fined for assault while stationed in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and had been detained for more than a month before being escorted to Incheon International Airport by the U.S. military for a commercial flight to Dallas, Texas, according to U.S. officials.
Once past security checks, he told airline staff at the departure gate he had lost his passport and returned to the terminal, an airport official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Wormuth said&nbsp;King&nbsp;"may not have been thinking&nbsp;clearly, frankly."
"He had assaulted an individual in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and had been in custody of the South&nbsp;Korean government and was going to come back to the United States and face the consequences in the Army," she said. "I'm sure that he was grappling with that."
North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and the United States have no formal diplomatic ties following years of international sanctions imposed on the reclusive state for its nuclear arms and missile programs that have drawn frequent U.N. condemnation.
Asked whether&nbsp;King&nbsp;might have sympathized with&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea, Wormuth said: "I don't think we have any information that points to that clearly."
The Pentagon said it was not aware of any changes to freedom of movement to roughly 28,500 U.S. forces in South&nbsp;Korea. Tensions are heightened on the&nbsp;Korean peninsula. The&nbsp;North&nbsp;has been conducting ballistic missile tests, the latest coinciding with the arrival in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;of a U.S. nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine for the first time since the 1980s.
Last week,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;launched its newest solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which it said had the longest flight time ever.
On Monday,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un and a powerful ruling party official, said the United States should stop its "foolish act" of provoking&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and said it was putting its security at risk.
She made her comments&nbsp;after&nbsp;White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington remained concerned that&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;would carry out another ICBM test.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Daniel Wallis and Grant McCool)

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Mounting US worries over Private Travis King after silence from North Korea