DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — North Korean soldiers stood yards away glaring at their South Korean and American counterparts here Friday in a standoff about, of all things, access to the historic conference room on-site.

The silent confrontation was apparently nothing unusual — which is to say it was just another surreal moment in an area former President Bill Clinton called "the scariest place on earth."

Despite recent threatening words and actions from North Korea, tours continued to roll through the DMZ on Friday morning, with U.S. Korean War veterans, a Japanese general and members of the rock bands Trapt and Default visiting the unusual tourist attraction in rapid succession.

"It’s like coming to Disney World, but Mickey Mouse has got a gun," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Martinez, whose job involves maintaining communications with the North Koreans at the DMZ.

The only problem, he said, is that no one has picked up the telephone across the Military Demarcation Line since March 10 — the longest the two sides have gone without talking at the DMZ since a system of almost-daily check-ins was established in 2007.

The North Koreans have also ignored messages that representatives from the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission have delivered via bullhorn in recent weeks, he said. The messages usually deal with courtesy warnings about military maneuvers going on in the area, and the like.

Martinez said he was not overly concerned about the cold shoulder U.S. and South Korean forces were getting at the DMZ, even in recent weeks as North Korea has launched missiles, conducted nuclear tests and repeatedly threatened to respond with force to various potential acts from its enemies.

"But we’re ready," he said. "It is always in the back of our minds. Hopefully, North Korea can settle down, and there can be some peace."

Close to 150,000 people a year visit the DMZ from the South, according to tour coordinator Air Force Staff Sgt. Alvarado Ramos. They are shown several sites of interest around the DMZ by tour guides, also known as security escorts, who explain the significance of those sites before, during and after the Korean War cease-fire was signed.

For most, Ramos said, the highlight of the tour is seeing the buildings of "Conference Row," which sit directly on the MDL and where negotiations between North Korea and the United Nations Command have been held since the cease-fire of 1953. It is also the only place where visitors can actually step "into" North Korea by walking to the northern half of one of the conference rooms.

"Some people come here to feel that tension; to see how it feels, because it’s not the same as watching it on the news," he said. "They can actually get real close to … the enemy."

Conference room T-2 was quite popular Friday, as tour group after tour group from the South ducked inside, while three such groups were spotted waiting on the North Korean side.

Officials said part of the agreement between the two sides is essentially that whoever needs the room can use it until they’re done, at which time the other side may enter.

A group of North Korean soldiers marched down to the room several times Friday morning, preparing to take control of it once there was a break in the steady stream of tour groups entering from the south.

But they repeatedly retreated back to their building after minutes of standing face-to-face with soldiers from the U.S. and South Korea.

Army Pfc. Anthony Hauck, a security escort, said the overlapping need for the conference room was not that unusual.

"It’s tense, but it’s not violent tense," he quipped.

U.N. officials at the DMZ said North Korean soldiers become more active there when dignitaries or a lot of media members visit the site. Friday was no exception, as the appearance of a Japanese general prompted two North Korean soldiers to peer into the window of the conference room, with binoculars in hand.

Jamie Miller, 16, a member of Seoul American High School’s JROTC program, said her visit to the DMZ "was a little nerve-wracking."

And the recent actions by North Korea did not escape her attention.

"I talked to my friend this morning back in the States, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, be careful,’ and I was like, ‘Nothing’s going to happen.’ " Miller said.

"But that’s always in the back of your mind."

Bill McCulloch, a Marine Corps veteran on his second visit to the DMZ, said that because of the recent events, "It definitely has a different feel, especially with all the saber-rattling going on, on CNN."

Francis Lewis, a Marine veteran of the Korean War from Oklahoma on his first visit back since the war, said he remembered the "brutal winters" here and that "the rats were as big as dogs in some of these bunkers."

He said that another Korean conflict "would be real costly. But, you have to stand up for what’s right. That’s the only way you’re going to have freedom. Otherwise, you end up in bondage."

Lynn Barnes, another Korean War veteran, said the actions of the North Koreans in recent weeks and at the DMZ on Friday was just "all so much show. Whatever they say, whatever they do — it is subject to change on a moment’s notice. It doesn’t matter."

Said Army Cpl. Charles Pearson, a security escort: "I think it’s good that people come up here, because they can see what’s really going on with North and South Korea … and find out why we’re here. It’s something people need to see."