Kim Taekyoon graduated from the Department of Sociology and the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University. He then earned doctorates in social policy and international relations at Oxford University in the U.K. and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., respectively. He was a visiting professor at the Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) in France (2009), an assistant professor at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies in Japan (2008-2011), and an assistant professor of public administration at Ewha Womans University (2011-2012). He is currently an associate professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at his alma mater. 

Kim has co-authored many books including The Korean State and Social Policy: How South Korea Lifted Itself from Poverty and Dictatorship to Affluence and Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2011), International Cooperation for North Korea’s Capacity Development (Korea Institute for National Unification, 2012); and Welcome! Labor-respected CSR: Companies Protecting Labor Rights (Happy Story, 2017). He has also written countless academic papers including "Forging Soft Accountability in Unlikely Settings: A Conceptual Analysis of Mutual Accountability in the Context of South-South Cooperation" [Global Governance 23(2), 2017]; "Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy: ‘Mixed Governance’ and Welfare in South Korea" [Journal of Democracy 22(3), 2011]; "In Search of an Epistemological Transition for Foreign Aid in International Society: Beyond the Dichotomy of National Interests and Humanitarianism" [Korean Political Science Review 50(1), 2016]; and "After Bandung: The Demise of the Third World Discourse and the Politicization of South-South Cooperation" [Korean Journal of International Studies 58(3), 2018].