Korea never gets annexed by Japan.

Let's say Japan decides not to force Korea to sign the treaty of 1905, and Korea continues as an independent empire.

What changes around the world?
 
From Japan's perspective the whole point of fighting those wars was to gain control of Korea, then Manchuria, then all of China. The only way to prevent the annexation of Korea is for the Japanese imperial project to get nipped in the bud by the Qing or Russians (or get Korea to modernize so it can defend itself, but that requires a much earlier PoD).
 
Korea doesn't try to be bigger than it is (no "Empire of Korea" proclaimed). The Kingdom of Joseon lasts a bit longer, maybe into the 1910s. It's best chance is to use the chaos in China when Qing dynasty falls to their advantage. Otherwise the Chinese decide to swallow them up, I think.
 
Korea doesn't try to be bigger than it is (no "Empire of Korea" proclaimed). The Kingdom of Joseon lasts a bit longer, maybe into the 1910s. It's best chance is to use the chaos in China when Qing dynasty falls to their advantage. Otherwise the Chinese decide to swallow them up, I think.
China really has never shown any interest in expanding into Korea post Ming. A post 1900s China invading Korea and annexing it is again one of those things I never understood.
 
Will World War II even happen now?

That's kind of far ahead, but if Japan loses to Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, or even China in the Sino-Japanese War, all efforts to assert Japanese military dominance goes down the toilet, military expansion delayed and discredited, and Japan would have to focus on economic domination rather than conquest.

In short, no Second Sino-Japanese War, at least not in the form we would recognize. It'd have to depend on Japan's course of action after defeat, whether it'd be fully pacified as was the case after World War II, or simply spend more time building up for Round 2.
 
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