I'm open to being convinced. Provide some sources so we can assess what the levels of investment were so we can come up with a rough model of what the situation going forward from 1905 would look like. Perhaps between agriculture and coal they could raise enough money to have the potential to do something, but then they'd also need competent leadership to pull a Meiji. So do you have the sources and data for us to look at?
Korea under Siege, 1876-1945: Capital Formation and Economic Transformation is a great book on this issue. I'll post a few parts of interest for the 1876–1904 part:
..... When proper adjustments are made, the actual deficit balance for Korea might be 15 to 20 percent smaller than the official statistics indicate and set at about 23 million yen during 1876–1904. This amount was equivalent to approximately 1.6 percent of Korea’s GDP in 1904. This small balance-of-payments deficit (or import surplus) suggests that there was a net inflow of foreign resources, thus enabling foreigners to invest in Korea. In this way, the opening of the country brought not only Western goods and advanced technology, it also allowed foreign resources to enter the country for investment, the establishment of industries, and the promotion of economic growth.
..... Korea’s exports to Japan, which constituted, on average, over nine-tenths of Korea’s total exports were composed predominantly of rice, beans, gold, and silver. Japanese tradesmen scoured the country for rice, even when the export of grain was prohibited by the Korean government. Gold exports to Japan peaked in 1887, when they represented about 85 percent of total Korean exports. The figure fell to 46.3 percent in 1893 and to about 40 percent before the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, but it regained its footing afterward, rising to about 65 percent between 1894 and 1900. Such exports were worth 3.7 million yen just before the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Annual exports of gold to Japan represented between 50 and more than 90 percent of total gold exports during most of the transitional period. Japan apparently was seeking gold in order to place its currency on a gold-standard system.
..... Almost all foreign investment in Korea during the transitional period was direct, and most was devoted to the development of commerce; mining; public utilities such as railroads, electric power, and communications; and the purchase of land. In the early years it was commerce that attracted most foreign investment, especially that of the Japanese and to some extent the Chinese.
...... As a consequence, for the most part the Korean economy during the transitional period remained undeveloped. Its growth was minimal. It can be estimated that Korea’s GDP expanded by no more than 10 percent in the thirty-year period, increasing the per capita GDP only about one-hundredth of a percent a year, from $720 in 1876 to $745 (all in year-2000 prices) in 1904, if at all. The basic economic structure was still agriculture, and the industrial sector remained infantile. The disposition to overconsume relative to income continued, while the propensities to save and invest were low, as Korea’s traditional consumption habits changed little, and savings continued to be negligible during the transitional period. Savings were too meager to finance large investments in such modern sectors of the economy as railroads, shipping, mining, banking, and manufacturing. Had Korea not been taken over by Japan, probably it eventually would have reformed, accumulated capital, and brought about economic development in due course. Unfortunately, such opportunity was not accorded to the country for the next forty years.