The White House says it is still trying to find out what happened to American soldier Travis King who disappeared after crossing into North Korea and says it has asked Sweden to help secure his return

The Biden administration is still trying to determine the health and whereabouts of a US soldier who invaded North Korea, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

Private Travis King was last seen a day earlier sprinting across the border as members of his tour party looked on in shock.

North Korea has not provided details of the apparent detention of the 23-year-old cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division.

During her daily briefing, Jean-Pierre was asked if the US knew where he was being held and what his health status was.

“The White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department and the UN are all continuing to work together on this matter to establish the information… the questions you just asked me about his well-being and the whereabouts of the private king,” she said.

“We are still collecting all the facts. It’s still very early.’

King signed in 2021, but would return to the US under a cloud. He had recently been released from local detention following an altercation last year.

Monday he would fly back to Texas. He was taken to Seoul International Airport but left without boarding his plane.

North Korea experts said he could hand the secretive nation a propaganda coup if he claims to defect, or be a valuable bargaining chip for its leader Kim Jong-un.

Jean-Pierre added: ‘We collect all the facts. But I want to be very clear that the administration has and will continue to work actively to ensure his safety and the return of Private King, to us and his family, of course.”

She said she worked with Sweden, which maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea, as well as South Korea.

However, Swedish embassy staff have reportedly yet to return to the country after being ordered to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic, further complicating matters.

A woman who toured with King said she initially thought his sprint was some sort of stunt.

“I initially assumed he had a friend filming him in some stupid prank or stunt, like a Tiktok, the dumbest thing you can do,” tourist Sarah Leslie told the Associated Press.

“But then I heard one of the soldiers yell, ‘Get that guy.'”

She said that after running about 30 feet down a corridor between distinctive blue buildings, King crossed the border and disappeared from sight.

Leslie, from New Zealand, said he was part of a 43-member group that set out from South Korea’s capital Seoul on Tuesday morning to visit the demilitarized zone that separates the north and south.

King is the first known American soldier to be held in North Korea for nearly five years.

The episode comes amid heightened tensions. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea on Tuesday night in what was reportedly a test just as a US nuclear-armed submarine arrived off the coast of South Korea.

The distance the missiles traveled roughly matched the distance between Pyongyang and the South Korean port city of Busan, where the USS Kentucky arrived Tuesday afternoon on its first such visit since the 1980s.

Meanwhile, King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said she had heard from her son several days earlier and he told her he would return to his base in Fort Bliss, Texas.

She said she was “shocked” by the news, adding, “I don’t see Travis doing anything like that.”