North Korean officials reached out to contacts in the Singaporean private sector for help in sourcing COVID-19 test kits, personal protective equipment (PPE), and respirators, a businessman based in the Southeast Asian city state said this week.

Speaking to NK News on Monday, Singaporean businessman Michael Heng — who led a business delegation to the DPRK in September 2018 and had been working to send another this year — said that a senior diplomat contact at the North Korean embassy reached out in early March to request the equipment.

Over the course of his business interactions with the North Koreans,