diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index cde7842c16b..b81f7cb58a1 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -1498,6 +1498,13 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) syncPod(o syncPodOptions) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	// If the pod is a static pod and its mirror pod is still gracefully terminating,
+	// we do not want to start the new static pod until the old static pod is gracefully terminated.
+	podFullName := kubecontainer.GetPodFullName(pod)
+	if kl.podKiller.IsMirrorPodPendingTerminationByPodName(podFullName) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("pod %q is pending termination", podFullName)
+	}
+
 	// Latency measurements for the main workflow are relative to the
 	// first time the pod was seen by the API server.
 	var firstSeenTime time.Time
@@ -1633,7 +1640,6 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) syncPod(o syncPodOptions) error {
 
 	// Create Mirror Pod for Static Pod if it doesn't already exist
 	if kubetypes.IsStaticPod(pod) {
-		podFullName := kubecontainer.GetPodFullName(pod)
 		deleted := false
 		if mirrorPod != nil {
 			if mirrorPod.DeletionTimestamp != nil || !kl.podManager.IsMirrorPodOf(mirrorPod, pod) {
@@ -1764,6 +1770,9 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) deletePod(pod *v1.Pod) error {
 	}
 	podPair := kubecontainer.PodPair{APIPod: pod, RunningPod: &runningPod}
 
+	if _, ok := kl.podManager.GetMirrorPodByPod(pod); ok {
+		kl.podKiller.MarkMirrorPodPendingTermination(pod)
+	}
 	kl.podKiller.KillPod(&podPair)
 
 	// We leave the volume/directory cleanup to the periodic cleanup routine.
@@ -2102,9 +2111,6 @@ func (kl *Kubelet) HandlePodRemoves(pods []*v1.Pod) {
 			kl.handleMirrorPod(pod, start)
 			continue
 		}
-		if _, ok := kl.podManager.GetMirrorPodByPod(pod); ok {
-			kl.podKiller.MarkMirrorPodPendingTermination(pod)
-		}
 		// Deletion is allowed to fail because the periodic cleanup routine
 		// will trigger deletion again.
 		if err := kl.deletePod(pod); err != nil {