diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/helpers.go b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/helpers.go
index a26ca48a36e..171b247f8f0 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/helpers.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/helpers.go
@@ -161,12 +161,3 @@ func matchImageIDOnly(inspected dockertypes.ImageInspect, image string) bool {
 	klog.V(4).Infof("The reference %s does not directly refer to the given image's ID (%q)", image, inspected.ID)
 	return false
 }
-
-// isImageNotFoundError returns whether the err is caused by image not found in docker
-// TODO: Use native error tester once ImageNotFoundError is supported in docker-engine client(eg. ImageRemove())
-func isImageNotFoundError(err error) bool {
-	if err != nil {
-		return strings.Contains(err.Error(), "No such image:")
-	}
-	return false
-}
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/kube_docker_client.go b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/kube_docker_client.go
index 0cdb9955e3d..e458a8fc706 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/kube_docker_client.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/libdocker/kube_docker_client.go
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ func (d *kubeDockerClient) RemoveImage(image string, opts dockertypes.ImageRemov
 	if ctxErr := contextError(ctx); ctxErr != nil {
 		return nil, ctxErr
 	}
-	if isImageNotFoundError(err) {
+	if dockerapi.IsErrNotFound(err) {
 		return nil, ImageNotFoundError{ID: image}
 	}
 	return resp, err