Chang Ung, deputy sports minister and an International Olympic Committee member, said suggestions that North Korea might host games for official co-host South Korea were a "media beat-up".
Seoul newspapers reported that South Korean soccer bosses had asked for official approval to visit communist North Korea in January to discuss the idea of the North hosting some games.
President Kim Dae Jung's ruling party is thought to be keen on using the finals to promote a rapprochement between the two Koreas - who have never signed a peace accord to end their1950-53 war.
But Chang said he had not heard anything from south of the border.
"It is all a media beat-up. I have never received an official request from anyone", Chang said in an interview with Reuters.
He said he would like to see more sporting links between North and South but since a meeting of sports officials at Panmunjom on the demilitarised border in 1991 there had been no contact.
"Since then the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated," he said.
Chang said there could be no cooperation between sporting bodies of the two countries until South Korea scrapped Article 7 of its National Security Law which treats North Korea as an enemy.
On the issue of the Asian Football Confederation's threatened boycott of the 2002 World Cup if Asia is not given the chance of an extra place, Chang said he completely agreed with the AFC position.
But asked what North Korea would do if a boycott was the final outcome, Chang replied: "We would have to consider it".
Pyongyang ignored the last Asian boycott, when Africa and Asia were granted only one berth between them for the 1966 World Cup finals in England. The North Koreans qualified for the finals after defeating Australia in a playoff.
They then progressed to the quarterfinals where they lost to Portugal 5-3 after beating Italy 1-0 in an earlier round.
Chang says the game has gone backwards in North Korea since that high point and the country is desperate for outside help as all national resources are going into coping with a three-year-old famine.
At an August IOC meeting in Switzerland, Chang invited Sepp Blatter, president of world football body FIFA, to come to Pyongyang.
Blatter is due to visit the reclusive state early next year.
"I asked him to come because I would like FIFA to provide development support for our football federation," Chang said.
He asked Blatter to establish a programme so North Korean coaches could travel to Europe to learn the latest training techniques. He also had also requested financial assistance to help the struggling sport survive in his country.
Reuters
