He holds degrees from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, France, 1953–1956, and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, 1957.
Korn joined the Foreign Service in September 1957 after serving briefly as a desk officer for North Africa at the International Administration, the predecessor of USAID.
From there, in 1963 to 1964, he took Arabic language training at the American consulate in Tangier, Morocco; and from 1964 to 1965, he served as Chargé d'Affaires and political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
From 1982 to 1985, Korn was Chargé d'Affaires and ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,[5] and in 1985–1986 was a fellow at Chatham House in London, England.
David Korn was divorced from Susan K. Palmer in 1981 and was married to Roberta Cohen, currently a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.