North Korea’s New Low

VX, the deadliest nerve agent ever, was the weapon that killed the half-brother of North Korea’s dictator. This casts a new and even more chilling light on the assassination at Kuala Lumpur airport.

Malaysian authorities announced Friday that they’d found traces of VX in Kim Jongnam’s corpse. They’re seeking several North Koreans in their investigation.

South Korean intelligence officials are plainly right to think the killing was a North Korean plot: No one else with access to the poison also had reason to off the guy.

But as the oldest son of the previous Pyongyang potentate, Kim Jong-il, he posed a threat to Kim Jong-un — who’s already had at least one other family member executed.

Communist in name, the North Korean regime in fact is a totalitarian personality cult run by the Kim dynasty since 1948. While the masses dwell on (at best) the edge of starvation, the tiny elite lives in luxury — financed in good part by counterfeiting, narcotics trading and illegal arms sales.

Notably, Kim Jong-nam was known to be under the Chinese government’s protection — so North Korea’s ruler crossed his ultimate protector by ordering the murder.

The airport attack was also the most brazen government-backed assassination in decades, fresh proof that Pyongyang will do whatever it likes. And the use of VX — a toxin so deadly it’s considered a weapon of mass destruction — is outlawed by virtually every other country in the world.

The VX use also raises fears of North Korea loading the terror weapon onto its missiles — a sign the rogue nation poses even worse dangers than once thought.

That’s a problem for the entire world — including Beijing, which is on notice that its pet rabid dog is no longer obeying orders.