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Just a few paragraphs earlier the author makes clear that he's talking about since the Pueblo; it's the lead sentence of the graf:

Ever since the sailors of the U.S.S. Pueblo were beaten in 1968, there have been no clear-cut cases of North Korea physically torturing American prisoners.

This also made me think of John McCain and other POWs. I think this part of the article is poorly worded. The author likely meant since 1968 this hasn't occurred.

It's a men's fashion magazine. I don't expect high quality work on this topic from them. I just skim to get a salient point here and there.

That's not how this works at all. GQ and Esquire run serious long-form journalism all the time. For that matter, Vanity Fair is Michael Lewis and William Langewiesche's home after leaving The Atlantic.