The two nations, which remain technically at war due to ongoing political tensions, were locked in the men's team 10-metres running target final that went down to the wire.

The Republic's Kwak Yong-bin, Ha Kwang-chul, and Jeong You-jin combined for a score of 1,668 in the main phase.

However, it was matched by Kwon Kwang-il, Pak Myong-won, and Yu Song-jun.

They were then denied victory by a 39-29 scoreline in a tiebreak.

"We have experienced so much [development] under the leadership of the great leader Kim Jong-un, but we have not accomplished a gold medal, and we are very unhappy for that," Kwon said after the defeat.

"We tried our best to get the gold medal."

Further excitement came in the shooting competitions as two world records were broken.

The first tumbled at the hands of India's Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rudrankkash Balasaheb Patil, and Aishwary Pratap Singh in the men's team 10m air rifle final.

The trio combined for a score of 1893.7 to beat China's previous best by 0.4 from August this year.

China's Sheng Lihao then posted a score of 253.3 in the men's 10m air rifle decider to beat compatriot Yu Haonan's 2019 benchmark by 0.5 points. 

His compatriot Li Yuehong then claimed gold in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol final in addition to helping China win the team event in the discipline.

The final shooting gold of the day went the way of Indonesian Muhammad Putra as he prevailed in the men's 10m running target.

A second day of swimming saw a remarkable set of races that produced five new Asian Games records.

Ji Yu-chan struck first in the men's 50m freestyle with a time of 21.72, before Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey clocked in after 1:54.12 in the women's 200m freestyle, and China's Qin Haiyang registered 57.76 in the men's 100m breaststroke.

Qin's compatriot Yu Yiting blew away the competition with her Games record of 2:07.75 in the women's 200m individual medley and South Korea did the same in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay with 7:01.73 which was also a continental best.

Earlier in the day, India captured the women's cricket crown for the first time by beating Sri Lanka by 19 runs.

Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues were key to their success scoring 46 and 42 runs, respectively, to guide India to 116-7 from 20 overs.

China's Mi Jiujiang and Li Hong sealed a mountain bike double as they both cruised to success in the respective men's and women's cross-country finals.

Fencing saw Oh Sang-uk defeat Gu Bon-gil 15-7 in an all-South Korean men's sabre final before China's Huang Qianqian got the better of Japanese Yuka Ueno in the women's individual foil decider.

A variety of nationalities were victorious in taekwondo's second day of finals with South Korea's Jang Jun and reigning Olympic champion Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand taking men's under-58kg and women's under-49kg titles.

China then got the better of South Korea in the mixed team tournament. 

Skateboarding gave out medals for the first time today in Hangzhou as Hinano Kusaki of Japan and Chen Ye triumphed in the women's and men's park finals.

Japan suffered a mixed day of finals in the judo as they lost the opening two gold medal bouts.

Chinese Taipei's Lien Chen-Ling got the better of Momo Tamaoki in the women's under-57kg and Soichi Hashimoto was defeated by Murodjon Yuldoshev in the men's under-73kg.

The countries fortunes turned around soon enough though as Miku Takaichi beat Tang Jing of China in the women's under-63kg gold medal-match.

Shiho Tanaka then bagged the final win of the day in the under-70kg with a thunderous ippon against North Korean Mun Song-hui.

Host nation China had a successful end to the day with victory in the women's artistic gymnastics team final with a leading score of 161.896 enough for gold.

Competition is set to continue tomorrow with 38 gold medals scheduled to be won.