North Korea has released one of three American citizens it had in confinement. Although Pyongyang did not give any indication of the fate of the other two American detainees, the release of Jeffrey Edward Fowle is seen as a gesture of goodwill toward the U.S. and the international community.

Fowle, 56, had been detained in Pyongyang since April for leaving a Bible in a hotel. Unlike the other two Americans, he had not received a court verdict, which would have been one of the reasons for being released first.

The two Americans still held in the North are Matthew Todd Miller, who was sentenced to six years of hard labor for committing “hostile” acts ― tearing up his tourist visa ― after arriving in Pyongyang in April, and Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary who was detained in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for unspecified “antistate” crimes.

In early September, North Korea allowed CNN to broadcast separate interviews of the three American detainees, in which they said they wanted their government to send an envoy to North Korea to help bring them home.

Although the North decided to free Fowle without winning a concession from the U.S., as it did with the visits to Pyongyang of former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the North’s action seems aimed at offering Washington an olive branch.

The U.S. and North Korea have not held talks since their private meeting in August. It is apparent that the North will continue to use both Miller and Bae as leverage with Washington, but it is hoped that Fowle’s release will provide momentum for a resumption of talks between the two sides.

The recent international pressure on the North over human rights might also have played a role in the North’s decision to release Fowle. The international community should keep up the pressure not only to free the two Americans and a South Korean missionary, Kim Jung-wook, but also improve the rights situation in the world’s most isolated, repressed country.