Maybe not but they have been invaded by Japan several times in their history.
They even ruled long enough to build castles..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_castles_in_Korea
Hideyoshi in 1592 was one of them.
China had Korea in its fist a lot too, Korea had to pay tribute to China for centuries. I wasn’t trying to pick on Japan.
Japan didn’t regard themselves as divinely governed under Meiji and not under the Shogunate. They regarded the Chinese as divinely governed under the Mandate of Heaven.
China’s collapse under post-Qing dynasty, lead them to believe that they were divinely governed and left a large power vacuum. This is what Japan tried to fill.