The air quality of South Korea was assessed during the NASA/NIER KORean -United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) mission of 2016. While KORUS-AQ was planned for after the spring peak in outbreaks of Asian dust, significant dust was found in the study region in early May. This dust provided ample surface area for heterogeneous chemistry between CaCO3 and anthropogenic gases (HNO3, H2SO4, and NH3). These gases were taken up by supermicron dust as NH4+, SO42-, or NO3-, into a Ca(NO 3)2(aq) facilitated dynamic layer or recrystallized on the dust surface as a matrix of CaSO4 with incorporated NH4NO 3. The Hwangsa Anthropogenic Model is proposed to explain these dust uptake chemical processes, Hwangsa is the Korean name for dust storm events. We also define the nanoequivalent concentration of supermicron SO4 2- plus NO3- over the nanoequivalent concentration of supermicron NH4+ plus Ca2+ as the Dust Pollution Index (DPI), to quantify the extent to which carbonate dust has been modified. DPI values range from 0 (pure dust) to 1 (completely reacted); thus, it represents the conversion of CaCO3 into CaSO4 and/or Ca(NO 3)2. Dust that traversed industrial China had significantly higher DPI values (average = 0.82, 1sigma = 0.10) compared to air masses that avoided interaction with these pollution hotspots (average = 0.51, 1sigma = 0.13). When the Hwangsa Anthropogenic model is used to modify the assumptions of the ISORROPIA II thermodynamic model, the average bulk calculation of aerosol acidity significantly decreases as a function of the loss of CO3-. The average aerosol pH decreased by 1.57 units from 5.57 to 4.00 for the dust laden samples collected between May 4th and 7th.