By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has offered a very brief response to the&nbsp;United Nations&nbsp;Command&nbsp;about a U.S. soldier who dashed over the heavily-guarded border with South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;on July 18 and was immediately taken into custody, the&nbsp;Pentagon&nbsp;said on Tuesday.
However,&nbsp;Pentagon&nbsp;spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said that&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;only acknowledged the U.N.&nbsp;Command's request for information about U.S. Army&nbsp;Private&nbsp;Travis&nbsp;King&nbsp;and stopped short of offering detailed information about him.
"I can confirm that the DPRK has responded to&nbsp;United Nations&nbsp;Command, but I don't have any substantial progress to read out," Ryder told a press conference,&nbsp;using the acronym of&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of&nbsp;Korea. When pressed, Ryder said that&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's message back to the U.N.&nbsp;Command&nbsp;was just "an acknowledgement" of the U.N.&nbsp;Command's inquiry.
King&nbsp;sprinted into&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;on July 18 while on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone on the border, landing the&nbsp;United States in a new diplomatic quandary with nuclear-armed&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea.
King, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2021, had served as a Cavalry Scout with the&nbsp;Korean Rotational Force, part of the decades-old U.S. security commitment to South&nbsp;Korea.
But his posting was dogged by legal troubles.
He faced two allegations of assault in South&nbsp;Korea, and eventually pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against&nbsp;Koreans, according to court documents.
From May 24 to July 10 he served a sentence of hard labor at the Cheonan correctional facility in lieu of paying a fine, Yonhap news agency reported.
After his release from the prison, which is designated for U.S. military members and other foreigners,&nbsp;King&nbsp;stayed at a U.S. base in South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;for a week, Yonhap said.
A Cheonan prison official confirmed&nbsp;King&nbsp;had served the hard labor sentence there, but declined to provide further information citing privacy concerns.
U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said&nbsp;King&nbsp;had been due to face military disciplinary action on his return home to Fort Bliss, Texas.
U.S. officials have expressed deep concern over&nbsp;King's fate in&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea. The Army has noted the case of Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student who was imprisoned in&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;for 17 months and died shortly after he was returned to the&nbsp;United States in a coma in 2017.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Grant McCool)

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North Korea responds to UN Command on US Private Travis King -Pentagon