To some, it might read like one of those “too-weird-and horrible-to-be-true stories” about North Korea—remember the myth that Kim Jong-un had his uncle mauled to death by a pack of hungry dogs? (That’s not to say that Kim will be winning any nephew of year awards anytime soon: He “merely” had his uncle killed by firing squad.)

So the report that an American backpacker who disappeared in 2004 in China was kidnapped by North Korea and forced to teach English in the totalitarian state might strike some as suspicious.