After learning about leader of North Korea Kim Jong Il’s death, Western states expressed hope that a change in leadership could ease North Korea out of decades of extreme isolation and better the lives of its suffering people.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "We call on the new leadership in North Korea to use the change of leadership for reform. The people are suffering under this dictatorship. They need new chances for prosperity and a new impetus for the peace process."

"This could be a turning point for North Korea. We hope that their new leadership will recognize that engagement with the international community offers the best prospect of improving the lives of ordinary North Korean people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

Kim suffered a heart attack while traveling on a train, North Korean state media said, setting up the autocratic, well-armed and nuclear-ambitious state for only its second leadership change since the Korean war ended in an uneasy truce in 1953.

State media anointed Kim's youngest son, Kim Jung-un, as the "Great Successor," but little is known about how he would run a reclusive state with more than a million troops and missiles that Washington fears could one day reach U.S. shores, Reuters reported.