If a guy can get his people to build a massive Tomb for him over the course of years....
Not. Remotely. Equivalent.
The State Government Argument is rather cyclical of itself.
Strong Nation:
For-"We are already awesome, so let us go and take that anyway!"
Against-"We are already so awesome we don't need to look at anything else".
Weak Nation:
For-"We are on the ass end of Europe we have no choice!"
Against-"We don't have the power, Captain!"
The only nation in East Asia that embodies this any more is: Japan. Which throughout its history went on galavanting naval expeditions based on a Strong-Weak Mindset. Why not just do away with the Isolation, then? Therefore we either need a Superpower Korea that dissuasive the Hideyoshi Shogunate or have a Tokugawa Shogunate that is forced into a position where it can't get any value from the 'West' and looks 'East'. To mimic Portugal and Spain.
A Superpower Korea is going to occupy a lot of attention from Japan, and mimicing Portugal and Spain makes no sense given the extremely different positions of Japan relative to both the Americas and nearby countries than Portugal and Spain had.
It's like asking what if the Netherlands pulled a Brandenburg Militarization.