OK. So here is the update... I'm sitting right now is the KE lounge at LAX. As you all probably know, not a great lounge, but better than sitting out by the gate...
I spoke to the ticket agent for a while, asking for a seat in the first 4 rows of the a/c... "phantom F", and believe it or not, they gave me seat 3B! I think it really helped that I'm Korean and spoke Korean to her... not a good reason, but just my opinion.
One strange thing... I'm on a flight that is "direct" not nonstop to ICN, we stop (no change of equip) in NRT, but the ticket agent said that they could only guarantee this seat until NRT, but I may be asked in NRT to move from 3B to another seat... no biggie... the boarding pass printed out 3B all the way to ICN, but she changed it by hand and wrote in NRT. It should be interesting to see what happens in NRT when I get there. I'll be sure to post an update when I have a chance.
Thanks again for all your help and kind thoughts.