diff --git a/cluster/kubemark/config-default.sh b/cluster/kubemark/config-default.sh
index b5209dd8103..ca448e96798 100644
--- a/cluster/kubemark/config-default.sh
+++ b/cluster/kubemark/config-default.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ source "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/gce/config-common.sh"
 
 GCLOUD=gcloud
 ZONE=${KUBE_GCE_ZONE:-us-central1-b}
+REGION=${ZONE%-*}
 NUM_NODES=${NUM_NODES:-100}
 MASTER_SIZE=${MASTER_SIZE:-n1-standard-$(get-master-size)}
 MASTER_DISK_TYPE=pd-ssd
diff --git a/test/kubemark/start-kubemark.sh b/test/kubemark/start-kubemark.sh
index 72aa5f72e4f..56fe2493fdd 100755
--- a/test/kubemark/start-kubemark.sh
+++ b/test/kubemark/start-kubemark.sh
@@ -80,7 +80,6 @@ run-gcloud-compute-with-retries disks create "${MASTER_NAME}-pd" \
   --type "${MASTER_DISK_TYPE}" \
   --size "${MASTER_DISK_SIZE}"
 
-REGION=${ZONE%-*}
 run-gcloud-compute-with-retries addresses create "${MASTER_NAME}-ip" \
   --project "${PROJECT}" \
   --region "${REGION}" -q
diff --git a/test/kubemark/stop-kubemark.sh b/test/kubemark/stop-kubemark.sh
index c60e0a13cd1..6fdff4a2f24 100755
--- a/test/kubemark/stop-kubemark.sh
+++ b/test/kubemark/stop-kubemark.sh
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ gcloud compute instances delete "${MASTER_NAME}" \
 gcloud compute disks delete "${MASTER_NAME}-pd" \
     ${GCLOUD_COMMON_ARGS} || true
 
-REGION=${ZONE%-*}
 gcloud compute addresses delete "${MASTER_NAME}-ip" \
     --project "${PROJECT}" \
     --region "${REGION}" \