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Regional air pollution is rising in Northeast Asia due to increasing energy consumption resulting from a growing population and intensifying industrialization. This study analyzes the sources of air pollution using fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) sampling from the atmosphere over Korea and China. We then use this analysis to further investigate the relationship between organic compounds (source tracers) and the oxidative potential of PM 2.5 . The PM 2.5 concentration during winter measured at a measurement stations in Korea showed no significant variation year-to-year. The PM 2.5 concentrations measured during winter at a site near Beijing, China were 62.45 μg/m 3 in 2018 and 33.07 μg/m 3 in 2020. The sources, as determined from PMF, were analyzed at a site in Korea, the sources as secondary nitrate (34.10 %), secondary sulfate (20.20 %), coal combustion (4.01 %), vehicle emission (8.55 %), cooking and biomass burning (18.39 %), dust (8.45 %), and SOA (6.29 %) were identified. At a site in China, secondary nitrate (17.54 %), secondary sulfate (12.03 %), coal combustion (15.53 %), vehicle emission (12.43 %), cooking and biomass burning (9.25 %), dust (26.40 %), secondary organic aerosol (6.82 %) were identified. Our results show secondary organic carbon had a positive association with oxidative potential in Korea while primary organic carbon presented higher correlation with oxidative potential in China. Further, the ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) wind field during the high PM 2.5 events demonstrated airflow from the west coast of China resulting in high polar organic compounds at the Korean monitoring site. The results further support that aged PM 2.5 , which contains secondary products, leads to increased oxidative potential. The results presented explain the high concentrations of secondary products and the impact on the biological activities of PM 2.5 , supporting additional actions to address the impacts of long-range transport of PM 2.5 ., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)