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If my textbook didn't get it wrong, then China is ちゅうごく while Korea is かんこく. I
checked the dictionary and 國 is certainly written as こく. So why is it ごく in
China's case?
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Why is China ちゅうごく while Korea is かんこく? Why the difference between ご and こ?
First, it's a phenomenon called
[rendaku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku) voicing, in case you don't
know.

Still, it remains as a tough question why China is read as ちゅうごく, which has
been asked in [a Japanese forum](http://okwave.jp/qa/q2267196.html) too. The
only sure thing is, [中国]{ちゅうごく} ("China") is an exception among other country
names ([韓国]{かんこく}, [米国]{べいこく}, [英国]{えいこく} or even [日本国]{にほんこく}).

Possible explanations are:

  * 中国 is considered as one solid word as a whole, while other countries are seen as compounds of 韓(Korean) + 国(nation), 英(British) + 国(nation) etc. Sino-Japanese compounds are less likely to rendaku.
  * Maybe analogy to that of [中国地方](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABgoku_region) in Japan.
  * Exception is exception, like you can't tell why Germans call some countries like _Turkey_ with an article ("die Türkei"), or Polish say that they are _in Ukraine_ as if it's not a country ("na Ukrainie").
  * [ **EDIT** ] I came up with another one: Most country names could be also analyzed into "State X" that is appositive, but 中国 is adnominal: "the middle country".
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