WI: Russo-Japanese Division of Korea

What if the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War had involved a division of Korea between an independent, but Russian-dominated, North and a Japanese South?
 
I don't know if the Russians would accept the Japanese and their Empire sharing borders: but they would probably insist on being able to annex Northern Korea instead of making it a puppet state, that way they could -perhaps- avert a loss of face. Would actually be quite a strange thing, to see Korea divided like OTL but much earlier. In any case, the Japanese would have a clear incenstive to join the Great War against the entente. If they are smart however they will sit that out, and if butterflies don't make another Russian revolution go away, then Japan is probably going to seize the entirety of Korea pretty soon. At the same time, this could open up an interesting front in World War Two; would there be fighting between Japan and (a) USSR, come the Second World War, if both these things are not butterflied away?

It's certainly an interesting thought experiment.
 
This would effectively be a MAJOR lose for Japan, as direct Russian control of North Korea implicently cedes them full influence in Manchuria, and Southern Korea wouldent be very profitable or defendable (lack of good geographic barriers and poor logistics, as well as the south being the poorer half of the Penninsula in this era), so we have to assume Russia either did better or somebody who was vastly more Pro Russian or "Yellow Peral" than Washington was regulating the negotiations and the "Ties break for the Whiter and more Christian" attitude prevails. Either way, Japan looks like significantly less of a threat or asset, and Britain might be a bit more wary about Russian expansion relative to the German threat.
 
Before the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese proposed dividing northeast Asia between a Russian-dominated Manchuria and a Japanese Korea. Russia instead wanted Korea North of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer.

Maybe North Korea could be a neutral buffer rather than under Russian influence? It more or less serves the same function.


I'm not quite sure why Southern Korea is so indefensible. The whole Korean Peninsula is fairly mountainous and the main point of a Japanese Southern Korea is for Japan to have buffer space to protect the islands from. The Taebaek Mountains, Central Korean lakes, Rivers, etc make for an okay northern demarcation.
 
Before the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese proposed dividing northeast Asia between a Russian-dominated Manchuria and a Japanese Korea. Russia instead wanted Korea North of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer.

Maybe North Korea could be a neutral buffer rather than under Russian influence? It more or less serves the same function.


I'm not quite sure why Southern Korea is so indefensible. The whole Korean Peninsula is fairly mountainous and the main point of a Japanese Southern Korea is for Japan to have buffer space to protect the islands from. The Taebaek Mountains, Central Korean lakes, Rivers, etc make for an okay northern demarcation.

Ice free ports in the northern half of the Peninsula such as Wonsan.
 
At the same time, this could open up an interesting front in World War Two; would there be fighting between Japan and (a) USSR, come the Second World War, if both these things are not butterflied away?

Japan wanted to control all of Asia, so I think: If WW2 happens, they will try to annex North Korea from Russia.
 
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