The White House is warning North Korea that a suspected rocket launch set for next month would be a "provocative act," as the U.S. intelligence chief threatened Pyongyang with serious consequences.

North Korea says its rocket is designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The North says the launch is timed for the eve of the inaugural session of its new parliament and for the April 15 birthday of its late founder, Kim Il Sung.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that any rocket launch would be a provocative violation of Security Council resolutions.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said that North Korea would risk international condemnation and possibly worse if it goes ahead with a planned rocket launch the U.S. considers a front for a ballistic missile program.

Blair's comments, reported by Reuters, came as the State Department called North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons a "real and immediate" danger following Pyongyang's threat to restart its weapons-grade nuclear program.

North Korea was preparing to fire what the U.S. believes is a long-range ballistic missile, and warned the United Nations that it would reconstitute its nuclear weapons program if the world body took any action to punish it for the launch. Pyongyang claims the rocket carries a communications satellite.

A State Department spokesman said Thursday the declaration was against the interests of peace and that no nation thinks the launch is a good idea.

"This provocative type of action would not go unnoticed," said acting deputy State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid, without commenting on a possible U.S. response. "I'm not going to preview what action might occur. The place to pursue a reaction would be through the (United Nations) Security Council."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear on Wednesday that the North Korean plan to fire a missile would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution barring the country from ballistic activity. She linked a missile launch to the future of talks between the U.S., North Korea and four other nations aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

"We have made it very clear that the North Koreans pursue this pathway at a cost and with consequences to the six-party talks, which we would like to see revived," Clinton said.

"We intend to raise this violation of the Security Council resolution, if it goes forward, in the U.N.," she said. "This provocative action in violation of the U.N. mandate will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences."

Pyongyang says its rocket will carry a satellite, but regional powers suspect the North will use the launch to test the delivery technology for a long-range missile capable of striking Alaska. They have said the launch -- banned by the U.N. Security Council in 2006 -- would trigger sanctions.

The U.N. has made no comment on the threats from North Korea. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in Moscow Thursday, and the issue has not yet been raised among members of the Security Council.

The flare-up was stirred on as North Korea loaded a rocket on a launch pad in anticipation of the launch expected between April 4 and 8. North Korea announced its intention to launch the satellite in February and offered its trajectory -- over Japan -- as a sign that it was a legitimate launch. 

Blair said earlier this month that all indications suggest North Korea will in fact launch a satellite. However, North Korea faked a satellite launch in 1998 to cloak a missile development test.

In 2006, North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 that blew up less than a minute into flight.

Both the satellite launch rocket and long-range missile use similar technology, and arms control experts say they fear even a satellite launch would be a test toward eventually launching a long-range missile.

South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, said Wednesday after returning from talks with his Beijing counterparts that a launch would trigger a response.

"If North Korea launches rocket, certain countermeasures are unavoidable," he said. He refused to elaborate, saying the measures, including any sanctions, would be discussed among U.N. Security Council member nations.

It probably won't be clear if the latest launch is a satellite or a missile test until footage can be analyzed after the event; the trajectory of a missile is markedly different from that of a satellite.

Analysts have been watching for signs of a satellite or missile on the launch pad in Musudan-ni, the northeast coastal launch site. Satellite imagery from March 16 showed progress toward mounting a rocket, with a crane hovering over the launch pad, said Christian LeMiere, an editor at Jane's Intelligence Review in London.

LeMiere said that once the rocket is mounted, scientists would need at least a week to fuel and carry out tests before any launch. 

FOX News' Nina Donaghy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.