A Seoul court on Monday backed a police ban on progressive activists' plan to circle the US and Japanese embassies in central Seoul as part of their Liberation Day rally.

The Seoul Administrative Court turned down the injunction request from a coalition of civic groups seeking to suspend the police's decision not to allow their events slated for Tuesday. They had planned to form human chains around the embassies near Gwanghwamun Square in commemoration of the country's independence from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule.

"Give the current diplomatic tensions and the stances of the US and Japan over the recent missile launches by North Korea, if the rally is carried out according to the plan, it could put restraints on embassy officials and give them the feeling of being locked inside," the court said. 

The court also said it may run against the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the domestic law, which forbids a rally within a 100-meter radius of a foreign diplomatic building.

The protesters notified the Seoul police weeks ago of their plan but police did not approve it, citing safety reasons. They were allowed only to march toward the front of the embassies. (Yonhap)