diff --git a/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go b/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go
index cd278848dd..b9fd2379f0 100644
--- a/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go
+++ b/pkg/build/nodeimage/buildcontext.go
@@ -303,26 +303,6 @@ func (c *buildContext) prePullImagesAndWriteManifests(bits kube.Bits, parsedVers
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	pinFns := []func() error{}
-	for _, image := range requiredImages {
-		image := image
-		pinFns = append(pinFns, func() error {
-			// pin core bundled images in order to prevent GC-ing
-			if err := importer.Pin(image, dockerBuildOsAndArch(c.arch)); err != nil {
-				c.logger.Warnf("Failed to pin %s with error: %v", image, err)
-				runE := exec.RunErrorForError(err)
-				c.logger.Warn(string(runE.Output))
-				return err
-			}
-			return nil
-		})
-	}
-	// pin all image concurrently and log error if any
-	if err := errors.UntilErrorConcurrent(pinFns); err != nil {
-		c.logger.Errorf("Image pin Failed! Failed to pin images %v", err)
-		// Ignore errors, and don't prevent image building.
-	}
-
 	return importer.ListImported()
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go b/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go
index 3d89e2fd13..2894f57d1d 100644
--- a/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go
+++ b/pkg/build/nodeimage/imageimporter.go
@@ -52,18 +52,10 @@ func (c *containerdImporter) Pull(image, platform string) error {
 	).SetStdout(io.Discard).SetStderr(io.Discard).Run()
 }
 
-// kubelet can determine what images to skip while doing image garbage collection
-// by checking the pinned attribute of the images through CRI
-func (c *containerdImporter) Pin(image, platform string) error {
-	return c.containerCmder.Command(
-		"ctr", "--namespace=k8s.io", "images", "label", image, "--platform="+platform, "io.cri-containerd.pinned=pinned",
-	).SetStdout(io.Discard).SetStderr(io.Discard).Run()
-}
-
 func (c *containerdImporter) LoadCommand() exec.Cmd {
 	return c.containerCmder.Command(
 		// TODO: ideally we do not need this in the future. we have fixed at least one image
-		"ctr", "--namespace=k8s.io", "images", "import", "--all-platforms", "--no-unpack", "--digests", "-",
+		"ctr", "--namespace=k8s.io", "images", "import", "--label=io.cri-containerd.pinned=pinned", "--all-platforms", "--no-unpack", "--digests", "-",
 	)
 }