North Korea’s release of three American hostages ahead of upcoming talks between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un could be an important development in efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

On Wednesday morning, President Trump announced the release of hostages Tony Kim, Kim Hak-song and Kim Dong-chul following a meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Jong Un.

While it remains to be seen if the release of the hostages is a sign of things to come, their release, in addition to bringing needed relief to them and their families, is yet another indication that actual progress is being made.

For now, the American people don’t have much choice but to just see what unfolds during and after Trump’s summit in Singapore with Kim Jong Un. But so far, the right attitude going into that meeting is one of cautious credit where credit is due.

Not that long ago, this very year, serious and influential analysts openly fretted that war with the North was around the corner. The respected opinion to have was that Trump was a reckless and inexperienced non-politician with ample reason to sidetrack his enemies by starting a new Korean war — even though such a war could involve massive United States casualties in its very first moments.

More sagacious observers understood that discounting the heavy breathing over Trump still left a robust possibility of war. It was Barack Obama himself who warned Trump that Pyongyang posed the U.S. its toughest international challenge. And it was Trump’s cabinet, stocked with military men, that appeared most grimly resolved to seriously entertain the military option.

Yet something, and maybe it was the saber-rattling, seems to have worked. Opening the possibility of a direct sit-down between the two heads of state created, or encouraged, a chain reaction of meetings: Kim on a secret jaunt to China; Kim and incoming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a secret Easter session; and Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, at a historic coming-together on first one side and then the other of the usually bristling demilitarized zone.

Diplomacy is messy, and it takes a great many hands, including much that is likely occurring behind the scenes, but there is no way to process these remarkable, historic and delicate events without giving some credit to the Trump administration. It was only a few months ago that the leader of North Korea was threatening the U.S. and its southern neighbor with nuclear war. Now, he is speaking of peace and denuclearization.

The hard fact is that war with the North would be a horror, while a nuclear-armed Pyongyang would be intolerable. Even a decent shot at escaping the horns of such an awful dilemma is a major achievement.

That doesn’t mean Trump or anyone else involved should be cued up for a Nobel Peace Prize. Not yet, anyway. It is far too early to declare victory in what is still a precarious situation in constant flux.

What is for certain is that there’s still a lot of risky work ahead. But at least it’s still ahead, instead of behind us, in ruins.