The ongoing trial in Singapore of Chinpo Shipping and its director Tan Cheng Hoe for making payments to a now sanctioned North Korean shipping company currently awaits a verdict after a two-month, often-delayed court battle.

The court proceedings have shed a little light on North Korea’s usually shaded dealings, and how the DPRK makes use of trusted foreign intermediaries.

Singapore-based Chinpo is currently accused of making a payment of $72,000 to Panama shipping agent C. B. Fenton and Co. in July 2013, on behalf of the Chon Chong Gang, a ship caught smuggling arms through the Panama Canal.

The North Korean