During the initial phases of his career, Cho represented South Korea's national Under-20 team several times and was selected by manager Park Sung-hwa to take part in the FIFA World Youth Championship (original name of the U-20 World Cup) in 2003, where he played three out of four matches as his side made it through the group stage, being one of the four best third-place finishers, but eventually lost to Japan in the round of 16.