The 23-year-old clocked a cumulative time of 3min 20.55sec for his four heats, beating Olympic Athlete from Russia’s Nikita Tregubov by a margin of 1.63 seconds at the Olympic Sliding Centre.

He had a lead of 1.02 seconds going into the decisive fourth and final run and sealed victory with a track record time of 50.02, bettering the 50.07 he set in heat two yesterday.

Yun, who came out on top in five of the eight races to win the 2017-2018 World Cup, becomes the first athlete from Asia to win a medal in skeleton.

"It is not my effort alone that got me this medal," he said.

"I would like to thank all my team for helping me, encouraging me.

"It is still unbelievable that I got the gold medal.

"I would like to again thank everyone on my team for always encouraging me.

"Getting the gold medal in any Olympics is a very great result, but getting the gold here in my home country is a very great honour - much bigger than that."

Dom Parsons finished third to secure Great Britain’s first Olympic medal in men’s skeleton since John Crammond won bronze at the St. Moritz 1948 Games.

The 30-year-old edged Latvia’s Martins Dukurs, the Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 silver medallist, off the podium by 0.11 seconds with a cumulative time of 3:22.20.

Dukurs was second after the third heat with a 0.04-second advantage over Parsons, but made mistakes in his final run.

"That was a bit of a rollercoaster and it hasn't really sunk in yet," Parsons said.

"I thought I'd lost it after that fourth run. 

"It felt like it'd had gone - I thought I’d binned it. 

"But Martins Dukurs has made some more mistakes and he's the last person I'd expect that from - he’s been dominant for so many years. 

"It's just those little hundredths making a difference - it's so close at the top."

Heats three and four in the women’s skeleton event are due to take place tomorrow.