Opposition lawmakers on Thursday proposed legal revisions to close loopholes that allowed a former aide of President Park Geun-hye to evade a parliamentary summons.

Woo Byung-woo, the former secretary for civil affairs is subject to criminal investigation for knowingly condoning wrongdoings of Park’s civilian friend Choi Soon-sil, who is indicted on charges including embezzlement, attempted fraud and abusing authority.

But Woo did not comply with the National Assembly’s subpoena for a parliamentary hearing on the Choi Soon-sil scandal, and remains “missing” as of Thursday afternoon. Unlike Choi and others, who refused summons and submitted their reasons for doing so, Woo did not even receive the parliament’s order in the first place.

The law states that those who refuse testimony, to submit relevant documents or to appear before the parliament without a viable reason can be punished by up to 10 million won ($8,630) in fines or three years in prison. If the designated witness does not comply, the parliament can issue an “order of accompanying (to the National Assembly),” refusal of which can be considered contempt of the parliament and punished with up to six years in prison.

The hole in this is that the law also states that such order comes into effect as soon as it is presented to the person in question.

Woo has been unaccounted for since the parliament issued the order on Wednesday, which technically means it has not come into effect as the order was never delivered to Woo.

Another loophole is that while it can order people to appear before the lawmakers, it cannot drag them there. Both the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court have ruled that forcible summons for investigation is illegal.

It is believed that Woo, a former prosecutor, is using the legal loophole to avoid being grilled by lawmakers.

Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the Saenuri Party, who heads the parliamentary special investigative committee on the Choi scandal, said that “there are those who attempt to nullify the stern investigation with featherweight knowledge of law.” The remark was widely interpreted as a jab toward Woo.

Opposition lawmakers on Thursday moved to revise the law for stronger punishment of those who refuse parliamentary subpoenas.

Rep. Woo Sang-ho, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, proposed a revision to the bill on those who refuse to testify at the National Assembly by removing the fine option and having the violators punished exclusively by prison terms.

Rep. Lee Seok-hyun of the same party proposed a law to endow the judicial authorities of the police to civil workers delivering orders of accompaniment. This would allow the cited workers to apply contempt of the parliament to those who refused accompaniment and arrest them on cite.

In order to eliminate cases where the summoned snubs the order by “disappearing” on purpose, Democratic Party Rep. Kim Kwang-young proposed a law to allow authorities to deliver the subpoena via public posting or email.

A law revision proposal by Rep. Lee Tae-kyu, also of the Democratic Party, stated that if the person receiving parliamentary summons refuses to accept it more than once, it should be considered delivered.

The Democratic Party is also mulling whether to propose another revision to allow the parliament itself to decide how to punish violators and request the cited punishment from judicial authorities.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)