Letters to the Editor
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Interesting......at the time, of course, the country was not divided,
and the US was far from the only country nibbling at Korea. Japan was warming up to its invasion, seeing Korea as a handy land bridge to China & Manchuria; Korea was and had been for time a suzerain state of China; and Russia was busy protecting its interests. And there were western missionaries. Who got executed.
The second US gunboat incident you refer to actually occurred on an island, so it was somewhat confined, but did nothing to improve relations with Korea or its rulers. A pity, since Queen Min was walking a knife's edge trying to keep her country independent of Japan (although I don't think she was queen yet in 1866).
The division of the country at the 38th parallel actually did occur maybe 30 years later, before the Russo-Japan war, when Russia and Japan agreed that that line was a good place to divvy up their spheres of influence. Russia, of course, was looking for that legendary warm-water port, and wanted Port Arthur. Didn't do them much good, because Japan attacked them only a year or so later. Still, it makes me think the seemingly arbitrary division at the 38th parallel after WW2 had historical roots.