Best Korea buys $15 dollars web template for official website - Polidicks

[img]http://global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/Scitech/North%20Korea%20Website.JPG[/img] [quote] Robert Westmore of Southern California designs websites for a living -- but he was shocked to learn that he had designed a new homepage for the reclusive North Korean regime. “I had no idea,” he told FoxNews.com in an interview. “Honestly, I didn't even know North Korea had a website.” While the notorious totalitarian government continues to spend hundreds of millions on failed rocket launches, North Korea skimps in other areas, notably web design. Indeed the country spent just $15 redesigning its national homepage, korea-dpr.com -- a fact accidentally discovered by an unsuspecting college student. Fordham junior Michael DiTanna was working on a class project about Korean propaganda when he noticed the country's "flashy" new redesign, which DiTanna estimates to be only a few months old. A computer science major, DiTanna quickly realized the site was based on Westmore's $15 Blender template. "Right away I saw that the site was produced through a purchased theme," DiTanna told FoxNews.com. "They just did a really sloppy job of cleaning up the source code," he added, leaving clues to the site's origin. Since 2000, the site has served as the officially sanctioned face of North Korea to the outside world. It was built by Cho Son-il, who told FoxNews.com he is an honorary citizen and an authorized North Korean spokesman. The site claims to receive an average of 12 million hits per month. “I had no idea. Honestly, I didn't even know North Korea had a website.” - Robert Westmore, the designer who created North Korea's website Son-il built the site, he said -- along the way paying that $15 to Robert Westmore, a freelance web designer from the West Coast who had posted the template for general consumption on ThemeForest.com, an online exchange where designers can show off their wares. Such templates are primarily intended for personal blogs on WordPress or Blogger -- not for government or international regimes. For Westmore, who ditched a senior web designer gig at an advertising agency three years ago to freelance full time, any publicity is good publicity. “As a web designer I'm always happy to see my work getting utilized,” Westmore, who spent several months of development on the theme, told FoxNews.com. “Especially when it's on a high-profile website.” It might seem strange that a country Former President George W. Bush lumped into the Axis of Evil would consider the work of a young Californian for the country’s Internet initiative, but North Korea has never been known for its technological savvy. As it turns out, budget limitations may have forced the country's hand. Cho Son-il, otherwise known as Alejandro Cao de benos de Les Perez, is an honorary citizen, authorized North Korean spokesman, and the first and only foreigner in history to work for the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). He helped launch the nation’s first website back in 2000, “with the authorization of our Minister and Vice-Minister of the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries,” Son-il told FoxNews.com. North Korea, a country infamous for its strict censorship policies and propaganda programs, created the site not for its own citizens -- who mostly lack Internet access -- but "for the people outside DPRK, to have basic information and a direct connection point with the country," Son-il said. One of his objectives was to boost the search ranking of the DPRK’s official homepage -- on a measly budget of around $100 a month. “In the year 2000, there was not a single site about the DPRK with information from the DPRK. The first sites given by a Yahoo search were the CIA Factbook or the South Korean government," Son-il told FoxNews.com. “But now we are positioned among the first in most search engines even though our initial budget was just 80 euros per month.” Did the $15 redesign swallow up 15 percent of his budget? Son-il did not return FoxNews.com questions about the current budget for the site -- which Wired.com suggested had an "amateurish look." If North Korea is seeking further assistance developing its site, Westmore did have a few suggestions for how Pyongyang might achieve a more “professional” look. “The dark theme they chose and the color scheme is a tad ominous looking,” Westmore told FoxNews.com. “It’s great for certain industries, but for a government website, not so much.” “Perhaps they would be interested in one of my other lighter, airy themes,” he said. Calls and emails to the North Korean Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and the official embassy in Washington, D.C., went unanswered. [/quote] Read more: [url]http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/19/designed-north-korea-newest-website/#ixzz1sbAe1m00[/url]

aaaannnd the website is down.

He has unlimited bragging rights now.

Entire annual budget consumed.

The kid to the middle right is holding a fucking gun

I'm surprised North Korea even has that much money to spare!

[QUOTE=PX1K;35649411]The kid to the middle right is holding a fucking gun[/QUOTE] 7 years old and ready to defend the homeland, how cute!

gotta admit though that website looks awesome

So, when is Anon going to attack this?

[QUOTE=mastermaul;35649409]Entire annual budget consumed.[/QUOTE] he could have fed 15 NK families with that money

The website took 8 minutes to load, but I'm finally on. Edit: Ha, Kim Jong Il "Brief History" Propoganda Booklet [url]http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/103.pdf[/url]

[quote]Such templates are primarily intended for personal blogs on WordPress or Blogger -- not for government or international regimes[/quote] I am quite sure templates sold on template websites aren't really intended for anything and are allowed to be used ranging from blogs up to government websites or any other websites.

Looks like the forum's been overloaded :v: Can't even access it. [editline]20th April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE]The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a genuine workers' state in which all the people are completely liberated from exploitation and oppression. The workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals are the true masters of their destiny and are in a unique position to defend their interests.[/QUOTE] :v:

If this is the new website, what was the old one like? My guess is the old website was a Freewebs page created in Frontpage 97...by a five year old. Looking at the Wayback Machine, [url=http://web.archive.org/web/20110720122008/http://www.korea-dpr.com/]I'd say I was right[/url].

Tourism? What? You can go to North Korea as a tourist???

Is that little boy in the red and white hat holding a rifle? Also Obama in a brown police uniform.

This just feels like a weak stab at them. "LOL Look they used a premade web template, what losers!" Really, if it works, who cares?

[QUOTE=wutanggrenad;35650271]This just feels like a weak stab at them. "LOL Look they used a premade web template, what losers!" Really, if it works, who cares?[/QUOTE]Pretty much. I don't get the fuss either. But then again it's FOX and they have to report on something.

[QUOTE=wutanggrenad;35650271]This just feels like a weak stab at them. "LOL Look they used a premade web template, what losers!" Really, if it works, who cares?[/QUOTE] Better than China who pirated Dreamweaver.

I have to admit, their website is much cooler looking than Whitehouse.gov

I thought they literally did not have internet in NK....I mean last I heard things like cell phones are not legal and shit, so I'm a bit confused now v:v:v.

The Photoshop-job of all the people and kids gathering around Kim Il-sung on their front page is horrible. Kim Il-sung looks so out of place in there. It looks like they tried to merge two different paintings together. For an isolated totalitarian dictatorship with such extensive propaganda, you'd think they would be better at editing pictures. Or I could just be wrong, and the picture is actually a single painting, but they made Kim Il-sung look out-of-place to make him stand out more or something. [editline]20th April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=NO ONE;35650559]I thought they literally did not have internet in NK....I mean last I heard things like cell phones are not legal and shit, so I'm a bit confused now v:v:v.[/QUOTE] This is a website maintained by the Korean Friendship Assosiasion, the international wing of North Korea's propaganda machine. It's meant for foreigners. Only top government officials have access to the internet in North Korea.

Lots of "official" websites use free or paid readily available templates, it keeps costs down. The only reason why people seem to be making a big deal is due to it being NK.

Oooh. They have a cafepress shop. [url]http://www.cafepress.com/kfashop/6147486[/url] I want to buy a poster with this on it [img]http://logo.cafepress.com/6/10227512.6147486.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=binkow;35649469]The website took 8 minutes to load, but I'm finally on. Edit: Ha, Kim Jong Il "Brief History" Propoganda Booklet [url]http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/103.pdf[/url][/QUOTE] brief history? 160 pages?

[QUOTE=Elgar;35649922]If this is the new website, what was the old one like? My guess is the old website was a Freewebs page created in Frontpage 97...by a five year old. Looking at the Wayback Machine, [url=http://web.archive.org/web/20110720122008/http://www.korea-dpr.com/]I'd say I was right[/url].[/QUOTE] Best Korea's old website looked like something created in Microsoft Powerpoint. [img]http://global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/Scitech/North%20Korea%20Website%20old.JPG[/img] Also for tourism, you can take a controlled trip through the DPRK with a guide. You arrive, get into the hotel, shut up, leave to be exposed to dense propaganda for the whole trip. But its really, really cool. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNUlZwGEygM[/media] They also have some really, really swell cruises running too! [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLmmhdY0A8[/media] And I have to say, the programs the children are exposed to in the DPRK are way more entertaining then the crap on today's television. Oh and the DPRK kidnapped the animator from Japan to make this. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6OQJxe8ic0[/media] And when I say North Korea trips are really, really cool. I mean it, the hermit country is really a spectacle to behold and is truly fascinating.

[url]http://www.korea-dpr.com/shop/[/url] "Error establishing a database connection" Works just like the rockets they build.

[QUOTE=kaukassus;35651063][url]http://www.korea-dpr.com/shop/[/url] "Error establishing a database connection" Works just like the rockets they build.[/QUOTE] Same for the forums. WAIT A SECOND HOLY SHIT THEY HAVE FORUMS

[img]http://i.imgur.com/orPoA.png[/img] Didn't know they wanted foreign people in their country.

[QUOTE=Ericson666;35651206]Same for the forums. WAIT A SECOND HOLY SHIT THEY HAVE FORUMS[/QUOTE] Before they changed the design, the "forums" were actually just a blog, so don't get your hopes up.