A Singapore-based shipping firm used its account at a Bank of China branch to conceal North Korean payments to operate ships carrying arms and other goods on behalf of the regime in Pyongyang, a news report said Tuesday.

Foreign Policy magazine cited a report from the U.N. panel of experts on sanctions on North Korea as saying that the firm, Chinpo Shipping, made some 605 payments valued at more than US$40 million on behalf of North Korean entities between April 2009 and July 2013.

The firm also wired more than $72,000 to a Panama shipping firm to cover the costs of passage for the MV Chong Chon Gang -- a North Korean-flagged vessel that had previously shipped weapons for the country -- through the Panama Canal, the magazine said, citing the panel's unpublicized report.

The company has been indicted on charges of helping the North Korean government evade U.N. sanctions.

The case is believed to be one of a series of examples of Pyongyang skirting U.N. sanctions, and raises questions about how stringently the newly adopted package of U.N. Security Council sanctions will be carried out.

The magazine reported that the panel's report reached a conclusion that sanctions haven't worked and there are few signs that sanctions will change the North's mind. (Yonhap)