15. Pension and Severance Plans

Foreign Defined Benefit Pension Plans

Our subsidiaries in Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan sponsor defined benefit pension plans that cover substantially all of their respective employees who are not covered by statutory plans. Charges to expense are based upon actuarial analyses. The components of net periodic pension cost for these defined benefit plans are as follows:



	For the Three Months Ended March 31,
	2015			2014
	(In thousands)
Service cost	$	1,219		$	1,424
Interest cost	766			779
Expected return on plan assets	(856		)	(766		)
Amortization of prior service cost	9			49
Recognized actuarial loss	21			92
Net periodic pension cost	$	1,159		$	1,578

Korean Severance Plan

Our subsidiary in Korea participates in an accrued severance plan that covers employees with at least one year of service. To the extent eligible employees are terminated, our subsidiary in Korea would be required to make lump-sum severance payments on behalf of these eligible employees based on their length of service, seniority and rate of pay at the time of termination. Accrued severance benefits are estimated assuming all eligible employees were to terminate their employment at the balance sheet date. Our contributions to the National Pension Plan of the Republic of Korea are deducted from accrued severance benefit liabilities.

The provision recorded for severance benefits for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014, was $5.1 million and $5.6 million, respectively. The balance of our Korean severance obligation consists of the following:



	March 31, 2015		December 31, 2014
	(In thousands)
Current (Accrued expenses)	$	13,809	$	13,226
Non-current (Pension and severance obligations)	133,701		133,435
Total Korean severance obligation	$	147,510	$	146,661