Police said Thursday that they have decided to prohibit civic groups from staging a massive rally in downtown Seoul this weekend, as it appears to be led by the same groups who were in charge of last month's violent protest.
  

In mid-November, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Seoul to protest the government's decision to adopt state history textbooks for secondary students and reform the labor market. The rally later turned violent as some protesters brandished metal pipes and police fired water cannons at them.
  

On Tuesday, the Civil Society Organizations Network in Korea, an association of 490 liberal civic groups across the country, notified police that it will hold a massive rally at the public plaza in front of the Seoul City Hall and march through the heart of the city to Daehangno Street on Saturday.
  

"We'll not permit the rally since it seems to be an extension of the Nov. 14 rally, which turned violent," a police official said on condition of anonymity.
  

Police earlier denied a plan for another rally this weekend reported by a farmers' association that led the Nov. 14 rally, along with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a militant umbrella labor union, and a progressive teachers' union.
  

The police official said the two rallies are actually the same one, with most of the rally organizers also the same.
  

Police also said the representatives of civic groups refused to sign a memorandum of understanding to conduct a peaceful and law-abiding rally.
  

The association criticized the police ban and vowed to seek a court injunction to overturn it.
  

It claimed that the signing of an MOU is not a legal condition for holding a rally, which goes against the freedom of assembly guaranteed by the Constitution.
  

The KCTU, which has vowed to join the protest, said they will go ahead with the forthcoming rally as planned.
  

"Considering that (this country) adopts a report system, not a permit system for assembly, demanding an MOU is not fair," said Park Seong-sik, KCTU spokesman. "The police's arbitrary conclusion that there is a danger of the rally becoming violent is like making a declaration that there is no freedom of assembly in South Korea." (Yonhap)