Graduated with a Master Degree in Economics from the Yonsei University in 1987 and with a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University in 1992. He has since then gone on to hold different positions within academia. Ko joined Korean Information and Society Development Institute (KISDI) as a senior research fellow in 2001. He went on to become the executive director of the KISDI Division of IT industry Research in 2005, a position he held until 2008 when he became the executive director of the KISDI Division for Convergence and Future Research. In 2017 Ko became the executive director of the Department of International Cooperation Research, a position which he still holds today.