Meiji Restoration-esque Korea

297* said:

For fear of the results of the Opium Wars, Korea performs a change almost exactly like the Meiji Restoration, accelerating industrialization and training its armed forces in Western techniques and tactics. In this timeline, Korea resists Western and Japanese imperialism limiting Japan to acquiring only Taiwan and all the islands between Japan and Taiwan. Unlike Japan, it is not a foreign aggressor seeking after an empire. How different would Korea be had it not been occupied or divided but industrialized/westernized on its own?

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perhaps they actually find common cause with Japan?

OTL, Japan figured it needed resources from wherever they could get their hands on, because they were the only non-european country that was able to project power imperial-style.

This also butterflies away a bunch of the racism and animosity between the two, as the Japanese looked down on the Koreans for being "uncivilized" and the Koreas hated the Japanese for their ill treatment and lack of respect.

But if Korea is in the same boat, I don't think it's hard to imagine that they will see each other as partners in some sort of 'common struggle'. The Greater East Asian Cooperation Sphere ends up with real cooperation, perhaps

BMN said:

perhaps they actually find common cause with Japan?

OTL, Japan figured it needed resources from wherever they could get their hands on, because they were the only non-european country that was able to project power imperial-style.

This also butterflies away a bunch of the racism and animosity between the two, as the Japanese looked down on the Koreans for being "uncivilized" and the Koreas hated the Japanese for their ill treatment and lack of respect.

But if Korea is in the same boat, I don't think it's hard to imagine that they will see each other as partners in some sort of 'common struggle'. The Greater East Asian Cooperation Sphere ends up with real cooperation, perhaps

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Korean and japanese alliance is most likely. The expansion of Japan will change. Korea will be getting Manchuria and immediate boundaries. Japan will be island hopping.

Korea would be a land power while Japan will have more resources to focus on the navy. So instead of a Russo japanese war you would have a Russo Korean war.

Realpolitik-driven collaboration between two countries seems plausible, but I don't think they would end up in same boat. Expansion into Manchuria is even less likely. Russians are watching and historically they were very good at building up influence in Korea.

Anyway, who is pulling this Meiji™? Historically Korean royalists were both the force behind the modernization and the force against the modernization, abhorring the Western ideas of liberalism and constitutionalism while envying modern military prowess, so I can see a more open-minded royalist regime pulling the reform, except in this case Meiji Oligarchy™ wouldn't exist, and without the Oligarchy it wouldn't be a Meiji. More like a Qing. And we all know where Qing ended up.

I've already discussed this extensively numerous times, and that's just over the last several months. The main causes for Joseon's stagnation by the 19th century was due to countless invasions of the peninsula for around two millennia, severely depressing the population before the 18th century, as well as an extended period of peace for over two centuries after 1637. The latter situation was unprecedented in Korean history, and the cumulative historical developments also caused the court to largely ignore various issues outside of the capital, as virtually the entire urban population had remained concentrated in Hanseong (Seoul), while the countryside generally continued to remain undeveloped.

In brief, significantly altering Korea's politics and demographics while remaining within the peninsula would require a PoD at least by the mid-18th century, although a scenario involving expansions into Manchuria would necessitate butterflies by the mid-16th century. This is because Japan had sustained far more advantages over Korea for centuries, and the former had viewed the peninsular entity as "inferior" in a historiographical sense long before the Imjin War, making significant changes necessary long before 1800.