Murder most foul

The assassination last week of Kim Jong Nam, the older half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, puts a human face on the wrongdoings of the Pyongyang government. The Kim regime has flagrantly and wantonly disregarded international rules, but those acts have been, in recent years at least, abstract and distant from the lives of most people. Even residents of Seoul go about their daily business without much concern from North Korea. Kim Jong Nam’s shocking murder is a reminder that the North Korean government at its essence is — literally — a murderous regime and must be treated as such.