While Wu dominated up front, South Korea's Lim Hyo Jun and Hungary's Shaoang Liu took silver and bronze as the top three all skated under the 40 second mark at the Olympic Oval.

Lim posted a time of 39.670 as Liu crossed in 39.699 – both times would have won any of last season's 500m World Cup races.

"The ice here is very fast," Wu, the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic champion, said afterwards.

"I'm very happy.

"A year's training has gone into this world record."

Taking three wins from the two World Cups this season, Wu is the first skater to reach 30,000 points in the overall classification for the men's 500m as the Liu brothers occupy second and third positions.

Shaoang Liu sits second with 14,400 points while Shaolin Sandor Liu is third on 11,355 points.

The Liu brothers did take gold on the final day of competition in the 2002 Winter Olympic host as they formed part of the gold medal winning teams in the 2,000m mixed relay and men's 5,000m relay.

They were joined by Sara Luca Bacskai and Petra Jaszapati as they took the mixed gold in front of The Netherlands in silver and France in bronze.

Hungary clocked 2min 38.505sec, marginally edging the Dutch team who finished in 2:38.512.

France followed on 2:38.807 as China were eliminated.

In the women's second 1,000m final, Canada's Alyson Charles continued her fine debut World Cup season.

After winning in Calgary, Charles pipped Germany's Anna Seidel for the gold in the United States too.

A time of 1:31.234 was enough to put the Canadian skater on top of the podium, as Seidel followed in 1:31.237.

South Korea's Noh Ah Rum took the bronze medal in 1:31.349.

Poland's Natalia Maliszewska also made history as the first woman from her country to win a World Cup gold medal as she took the win in the ladies' 500m.

A World Championship medallist, Maliszewska crossed the line first in 42.677 as Dutch skater Suzanne Schulting and China's Fan Kexin followed.

Versatile skater Schulting clocked 42.697 as Fan finished in 42.767.