Some Vietnamese feel that it is their destiny to eventually rule over South East Asia and that China was responsible for destroying that dream's manifestation or at least put a pause to it. It is sort of seen as an injustice and a constant struggle living in the shadows of China as a result of geopolitics.
The expansion during recent times by Vietnam was seen as the natural historical progression of the nation and that some feel Vietnam should have at least retained control of the former French Indo-China colonies. How China often views Vietnam is not how some Vietnamese views what Vietnam should be. Basically they want to become the "middle kingdom" of South East Asia. It has the capability to annex its smaller neighbors but doesn't desire a war with China in the process, this can prove a frustrating situation.
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Though Vietnam may feel frustrated about its environment, it is in a more open ended geopolitical situation compared to Korea. The Koreas on both sides of the DMZ have stated their historical struggle as a peninsula sandwiched between China and Japan. Their geopolitical hardships are determined by mostly uncontrollable external factors. To start, even under an unified Korea, they still lack the strategic depth and concentration of power due to geographic factors to counter the collision between neighbors. An internal conflict between Korean Kingdoms often pulled in external forces. When Yuan dynasty invaded Japan, they took Korea. When Tang China and Yamato Japan fought, they allied with different Korean Kingdoms. When Japan wanted to invade China, the Korean peninsula was used as a foothold on the continent and Korea requested Qing China's support. This quickly turned into a war between China and Japan with Korea sidelined. When WW2 ended, the cold war began, causing USSR and the US to draw their line across the middle of Korea, eventually igniting the Korean War. The war had less to due with the Korean internal affairs and more to do with the the confrontation between major powers. This is in addition to the internal ramifications of dynastic changes in China.
This is mixed with a sense of powerlessness due to mostly geographic factors that are literally set in stone. Being sandwiched is one issue but land and strategic depth are also important in determining the limit of scale to industries and population. The rough terrain of Korea is not suitable for sustaining a large population relying upon domestic agricultural production. It will almost always have a lower population than China and Japan under usual conditions. Korea also lacks open and uncontested access to the wider ocean, it is surrounded by China and Japan. It is an insecure nation in the geopolitical sense thus often remains a "hermit kingdom" as a measure of self preservation.
A possible direction of expansion is towards the North but was historically off limits due to the residences of Manchuria. In modern times, China and Russia, both nuclear powers have strong holds in the Northern direction. In the modern context, I think this will pressure South Korea or an eventual united Korea to pursue a proportionally higher investment into its naval projection and set up interests overseas to sustain greater capabilities at the core. They would also spread its industries and various assets as a means for strategic depth. This will be more apparent once its continental geopolitical issues are resolved and will not likely antagonize itself with China or Russia due to the need for expansion of overseas interests for security at home.
Not an intelligent statement.
