Contrary to what Dietrich will likely present as fact, Stevens was NOT acting in any official office in or above the Government of Korea. He was actually a member of the Japanese Ministry based out of Washington DC beginning in 1883. Stevens was a US Diplomat but Dietrich has never acknowledged his working with the Japanese who had annexed Korea.
Dietrich probably got this idea from the title of a 2007
American History magazine article: Death of an "American Dictator"
https://www.historynet.com/death-american-dictator.htmIn November 1904, Stevens was appointed as adviser to the Korean Foreign Office.[13] The Japanese government had urged the Korean government to appoint him to this position on the basis of the 1901 recommendation of Horace Allen. Stevens ignored several requests that a Korean consul be appointed in Hawaii; despite this, in 1905, Allen also commended Stevens to F. M. Swanzy, president of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association; Swanzy was interested in seeing Korean emigration to Hawaii resumed. The Japanese government expected that Stevens supported their efforts to block Korean emigration to Hawaii, but he was initially open to the idea.
He had several meetings with Swanzy in Tokyo in mid-1905 on the subject, but in the end, Swanzy's efforts were unsuccessful.[14] Later that year, he issued a statement that Japan would welcome legislation restricting the entry of Japanese immigrants into the United States, and that they were also in favor of stopping movement to Hawaii, "provided it can be done in a manner that would not be offensive to Japan or that would not affect her dignity"; he stated that the Japanese government hoped to induce potential emigrants to settle in Korea or northeast China instead.[15] While officially under the employ of the Joseon government, he purportedly continued to receive tens of thousands of dollars in payments from the Japanese in order to "advance Japanese propaganda" among the American people, according to South Korea's Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affairs.[16]
In early 1906, Stevens made a bet with Kiuchi Jūshirō, a Japanese official resident in Korea, about the length of time before Japan would annex Korea. Kiuchi expected it would only take three years; Stevens's guess of five years would prove to be more nearly correct, as the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed in mid-1910.[17] However, Stevens would not survive to see his prediction come true.
As far as the 1871 incident between the USA and Korea, it had little to do with Steven's later involvement or assassination, and more to do with the disappearance of an American armed merchant ship General Sherman, in 1866.
In 1871, the U.S. State Department dispatched Frederick Low, the United States Minister to China alongside the Asiatic Squadron of the U.S. Navy to investigate the disappearance of the General Sherman and negotiate a treaty with the Korean government which would open up Korea to foreign trade. The expedition consisted of five ships: frigate Colorado, sloops Alaska and Benicia and gunboats Monocacy and Palos. The New York Times claimed that the expedition would produce a "Detailed Account of the Treacherous Attack of the Coreans on Our Launches" and deliver "Speedy and Effective Punishment of the Barbarians".[1][4]
The expedition departed from Nagasaki on May 16, arriving at Incheon a week late before setting anchor at Ganghwa Island on May 28. On May 30 and 31, the expedition made contact with Korean officials, which rebuffed American offers to negotiate, noting that their government "was not the least interested in a trade treaty". Two days later on June 1, the expedition was ambushed by Korean troops as it was sailing up the Han River, with the Americans repulsing the ambushing forces. After failing to receive an apology and receiving confirmation of the fate of the General Sherman, the American expedition attacked and occupied a series of Korean forts. Though the U.S. had emerged militarily victorious, the Korean government maintained its isolationist stance, which would only be ended in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876.[1][7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_expedition_to_Koreahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Sherman_incidenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganghwa_Islandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Stevens
