Japan, a key ally of the United States, tuesday joined criticism of the WikiLeaks website over its release of secret US diplomatic cables.

“It’s just outrageous. It’s a criminal act,” Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara told a news conference when asked about his stance on the controversial website.

“It is a government that makes decisions on documents, no matter whether they are unscreened or classified,” Maehara said.

“(WikiLeaks) steals them without asking and then makes them public. I cannot see any value in the act at all.”

Top US diplomat Hillary Clinton on Monday accused WikiLeaks of an “attack” on the world as key American allies were left red-faced by the embarrassing revelations in the vast trove of leaked memos.

According to confidential cables released by WikiLeaks, an unnamed Chinese official criticised Japan, which has been pressing North Korea on the fate of its citizens kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train the regime’s spies.

“Japan’s obsession with the abductee issue reminded him of a Chinese expression for an individual who was too weak to make something work, yet strong enough to destroy it,” the cable said.

Another cable was on a visit to China in April 2009 by then Japanese prime minister Taro Aso and his meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Kunio Umeda, who at the time was a minister at the Japanese embassy in Beijing, reported that Wen was “tired and seemed under a lot of pressure” from dealing with the economic crisis.

NATO condemns Wikileaks over tactical nukes

NATO is condemning the release by Wikileaks of diplomatic cables detailing the deployment of US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu Tuesday described the leaks as “illegal and dangerous.”

Leaked US diplomatic cables show that most of about 200 US tactical nuclear bombs still left in Europe are based in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey. The four nations have been long suspected of hosting the warheads, but NATO and the governments involved have always refused to confirm this.

The B-61 bombs, America’s oldest nuclear weapons, date back to the 1950s.

They were part of Washington’s effort to demonstrate a commitment to NATO’s defense during the Cold War by embedding such weapons near potential battlefields.