The U.S. State Department has welcomed North Korea’s release of a South Korean worker who was detained in the communist country for nearly 140 days.

Assistant State Secretary Philip Crowley told a news briefing that the U.S. welcomes the release of the South Korean and hopes that an obstacle to inter-Korean dialogue will be removed as a result.

He also hoped that the North will soon begin to “go down a path” toward denuclearization.

The worker was detained on March 30th while working at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North. He was accused of denouncing the North Korean system and attempting to persuade a North Korean woman to defect to the South. He was released on Thursday.