"Those in the Japan camp are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too focused on the technicalities. You'd be hard pressed to find any book that introduces ""Joseon was a tributary of China"" or ""Joseon was a sovereign country/nation/state."" No, it'd more like ""Joseon was a country in Korea"" the end. So that whole google book page hit is irrelevant. And Bill Price is right, the English terms are a sort of a cop out. I mean surely you wouldn't call the British Empire a tributary of China prior to the Opium Wars. Despite this denomination, Joseon was and acted as a independent sovereign nation. This excerpt explains more about the relationship and how such terms may be confusing. 
 
   

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