diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster.go
index 32927d70489..12fce577e84 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster.go
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import (
 
 	kubeadmapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm"
 	kubeadmscheme "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/scheme"
+	kubeadmapiv1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1beta3"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/componentconfigs"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/apiclient"
@@ -68,8 +69,13 @@ func getInitConfigurationFromCluster(kubeconfigDir string, client clientset.Inte
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to get config map")
 	}
 
-	// InitConfiguration is composed with data from different places
+	// Take an empty versioned InitConfiguration, statically default it and convert it to the internal type
+	versionedInitcfg := &kubeadmapiv1.InitConfiguration{}
+	kubeadmscheme.Scheme.Default(versionedInitcfg)
 	initcfg := &kubeadmapi.InitConfiguration{}
+	if err := kubeadmscheme.Scheme.Convert(versionedInitcfg, initcfg, nil); err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "could not prepare a defaulted InitConfiguration")
+	}
 
 	// gets ClusterConfiguration from kubeadm-config
 	clusterConfigurationData, ok := configMap.Data[constants.ClusterConfigurationConfigMapKey]
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster_test.go
index 70b83d93f44..8aa9490a351 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config/cluster_test.go
@@ -730,6 +730,9 @@ func TestGetInitConfigurationFromCluster(t *testing.T) {
 			if cfg.ClusterConfiguration.KubernetesVersion != k8sVersionString {
 				t.Errorf("invalid ClusterConfiguration.KubernetesVersion")
 			}
+			if cfg.NodeRegistration.ImagePullPolicy != kubeadmapiv1.DefaultImagePullPolicy {
+				t.Errorf("invalid cfg.NodeRegistration.ImagePullPolicy %v", cfg.NodeRegistration.ImagePullPolicy)
+			}
 			if !rt.newControlPlane && (cfg.LocalAPIEndpoint.AdvertiseAddress != "1.2.3.4" || cfg.LocalAPIEndpoint.BindPort != 1234) {
 				t.Errorf("invalid cfg.LocalAPIEndpoint: %v", cfg.LocalAPIEndpoint)
 			}