The United States and China agreed not to dispatch troops to North Korea in case there is a sudden change or turmoil in the nation, RFA reported Friday, citing a former U.S. official.

``The U.S. has assured China that the U.S. will not supply, provide military or diplomatic support for any South Korean intervention in North Korea and the Chinese at the same time have guaranteed the U.S. that they would not intervene in North Korean area. They had strategic talks last year, at which this was quietly agreed upon," said Kenneth Quinones, a former U.S. state department official.

Quinones, who is currently a professor of Korean studies at Akita International University in Japan, said this agreement was made in a security dialogue between the two countries, held in June last year.

If North Korea falls into political turmoil in the aftermath of Kim Jong-il's death, the Obama administration will not deploy U.S. troops in North Korea alongside the South Korean troops, he said.

The agreement was not a formal written pact, he added, but was a "bilateral understanding."

Quinones said he didn't expect a quick unification of the two Koreas when North Korea experiences a sudden internal change, warning that if the South dispatches its troops to the North, that would likely lead to war.