EVENTS

SOUTH KOREA OFFERS AID TO NORTH KOREA South Korean President Kim Young Sam told Chinese authorities yesterday that South Korea was ready to provide economic aid to North Korea if the isolated communist state engaged in serious dialogue with the South over its suspected nuclear program. Mr. Kim also offered the provision of rice. Western intelligence sources say the North is seriously short of rice. The Chinese dignitaries arrived in Seoul on Sunday for an eight-day stay to discuss ways to end the dispute over the North's refusal to allow full international inspection of nuclear plants where the West fears it is building a bomb. Taiwan election scandal

Taiwanese prosecutors yesterday charged 53 people with corruption, bringing to 188 the number of people indicted so far in the island's worst vote-buying scandal. The prosecutor in Taichung City indicted 26 people, including Speaker Kuo Yen-sheng, a member of the ruling Nationalist Party. Euro Disney anniversary

As Euro Disney prepared to mark its second anniversary today, bankers to the debt-strapped theme park were playing a high-stakes poker game over its $3.59 billion rescue package. French bankers were meeting Japanese bank lenders late yesterday to persuade them to accept the deal by an informal deadline of Friday. PLO shootout

A senior loyalist of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat was killed in a shootout at Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp yesterday, security sources said. Sources gave no further details beyond saying Lt. Col. Hussein Abu Zeid became the fourth Arafat loyalist to be killed in Lebanon since the Sept. 13 signing of the limited autonomy accord by Israel and the PLO. Rwanda refugees

Fierce fighting was reported yesterday between the Rwandan Army and rebels outside the capital of Kigali, where four days of violence and looting has killed thousands of people. Hundreds of Westerners fled Rwanda on Sunday. NAACP controversy

Several NAACP board members criticized executive director Benjamin Chavis Jr. for meeting privately with a group that included militant black figures. Mr. Chavis convened the meeting of about 25 people in Detroit on Friday, newspapers reported. NAACP board members were not told about the meeting. (Views of Rev. Louis Farrakhan differ, Page 12.) Black Sea clash

Russia accused Ukraine yesterday of storming a Black Sea naval base and arresting three officers. Ukraine denied using violence in one of the most serious clashes yet over control of the Black Sea Fleet. The Russian military claimed 120 Ukrainian commandos took over the base in the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Sunday.