South Korean government and local agencies have signed an investment agreement with Dreamline to build a submarine cable landing station at the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex.

Saemangeum is a major reclaimed land and industrial development area on South Korea’s west coast, positioned by authorities for manufacturing, logistics and digital infrastructure projects.

The agreement involves the Saemangeum Development Authority, which oversees development of the industrial zone, alongside Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, Gunsan City, and the Korea Rural Community Corporation.

The facility will support AUG East, or Asia United Gateway East, an 8,900km international submarine cable system connecting Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. The project involves 11 companies and is scheduled to enter service in the second half of 2029.

The landing station will connect international submarine optical cables to domestic communications networks and data infrastructure. Saemangeum authorities said the project is expected to help strengthen the region’s role in South Korea’s digital infrastructure market.

Dreamline selected the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex on South Korea’s west coast as part of a plan to diversify the country’s submarine cable infrastructure, which has historically been concentrated in the southeast, including Busan and Geoje.

Founded in 1997, Dreamline is a major B2B telecommunications provider and network operator. The company operates around 58,000km of optical fibre networks in South Korea.

The Saemangeum landing station is expected to be built in Section 2 of the national industrial complex. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2027, with commercial services planned to start in 2029.

The project comes as rising AI adoption increases demand for international data transmission capacity. Submarine cables are becoming more important to data centre and cloud infrastructure, particularly as operators seek lower-latency routes for AI workloads.

The landing station is also expected to support nearby digital infrastructure developments, including Hyundai Motor Group’s planned AI data centre. The proximity of submarine cable infrastructure could help reduce latency for data-intensive AI applications.

“We will contribute to growing Saemangeum into Korea’s representative digital hub by providing ultra-high-speed, low-latency infrastructure optimised for artificial intelligence (AI) and data centre operations based on the AUG East submarine fibre optic cable,” said Dreamline CEO Han Yoon-jae.