PANMUNJON, South Korea -- The institutional gray metal tables and chairs don't look any different, and the beige linoleum is all the same, too. But half of the furnishings in this plain room are in North Korea.
Only the microphone wires stretched across the largest table mark the line between North and South in the one shared building inside the demilitarized zone that divides the country.The simple structure, painted U.N. blue, was the site of talks Tuesday aimed at halting the escalating conflict between the two Koreas' navies in the nearby West, or Yellow, Sea.
Less than an hour before those talks were to begin, however, the South Korean navy sank a North Korean boat in an exchange of gunfire in South Korean waters.
The situation was tense enough that a regularly scheduled air raid drill in Seoul was canceled, apparently so as not to alarm the public further. The military was placed on heightened alert.
Yet by Wednesday, tours at the U.N. Command base in Panmunjon had resumed. Among them were journalists covering this week's International Olympic Committee meetings in Seoul.
"We weren't sure we'd have tours today until the morning," U.S. Army Specialist Joseph Cain said. "There is increased security along the whole border."
But the military escorts said visitors to the base wouldn't notice any difference. U.S. Army Sgt. Antony Joseph said the confrontation was at sea, not in the DMZ.
"Naturally, everybody would be concerned about it. But if something was going to happen, it would have happened yesterday when the talks were going on," said Joseph, a media liaison for the U.N. command.
There was something unusual about Wednesday's hourlong tour -- it included a glimpse of what appeared to be a tour group on the North Korean side. Cain said such sightings are rare.
The older men and women, many shielded from the day's steady drizzle by brightly colored umbrellas, first posed for pictures and then climbed to the top of a massive concrete building and stared across the line of demarcation.
The journalists on the top floor of an equally massive concrete building on the other side did the same. Below, guards from the Korean People's army in the North and the U.N. Command in the South stood at attention.
Both groups toured the Military Armistice Commission Building where the peace talks were being held earlier this week. When the North Korean group entered, the door to the south was guarded, Cain said.
When the media's turn came, a pair of Republic of Korea soldiers wearing mirrored sunglasses manned the door to the north. They stood with legs apart, clenching their fists.
"They're here for your protection," Cain said. He sent one of the guards to stand behind a small U.N. flag atop the conference table to make sure no one walked in front of it to get to the North Korean side of the room.
Journalists were returned to Seoul in time for the only item on the IOC's agenda Wednesday -- an early evening ceremony to mark the opening of the annual meeting of the full membership.
Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney said Tuesday that the 2002 Winter Games is scrapping a similar ceremony as part of its budget-cutting efforts.
The hourlong ceremony at the Seoul Arts Center included several lengthy performances by the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, two opera singers and a pianist.
IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch said the organization was working to reform itself in light of the bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
"We have admitted to the errors committed and accepted our responsibilities," Samaranch said. He also made it clear he won't resign before his term ends in 2001.