diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/run/run_unix.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/run/run_unix.go
index 5f553cd65..1291bfd20 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/run/run_unix.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/run/run_unix.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/cmd/ctr/commands"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/contrib/nvidia"
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/oci"
-	specs "github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/specs-go"
+	"github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/specs-go"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"github.com/urfave/cli"
 )
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ func NewContainer(ctx gocontext.Context, client *containerd.Client, context *cli
 		spec  containerd.NewContainerOpts
 	)
 
+	cOpts = append(cOpts, containerd.WithContainerLabels(commands.LabelArgs(context.StringSlice("label"))))
 	if config {
 		opts = append(opts, oci.WithSpecFromFile(context.String("config")))
 	} else {
@@ -98,7 +99,8 @@ func NewContainer(ctx gocontext.Context, client *containerd.Client, context *cli
 				// Even when "readonly" is set, we don't use KindView snapshot here. (#1495)
 				// We pass writable snapshot to the OCI runtime, and the runtime remounts it as read-only,
 				// after creating some mount points on demand.
-				containerd.WithNewSnapshot(id, image))
+				containerd.WithNewSnapshot(id, image),
+				containerd.WithImageStopSignal(image, "SIGTERM"))
 		}
 		if context.Bool("readonly") {
 			opts = append(opts, oci.WithRootFSReadonly())
@@ -141,7 +143,6 @@ func NewContainer(ctx gocontext.Context, client *containerd.Client, context *cli
 		}
 	}
 
-	cOpts = append(cOpts, containerd.WithContainerLabels(commands.LabelArgs(context.StringSlice("label"))))
 	cOpts = append(cOpts, containerd.WithRuntime(context.String("runtime"), nil))
 
 	var s specs.Spec
diff --git a/cmd/ctr/commands/tasks/kill.go b/cmd/ctr/commands/tasks/kill.go
index 24e93cafd..080ffa049 100644
--- a/cmd/ctr/commands/tasks/kill.go
+++ b/cmd/ctr/commands/tasks/kill.go
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/urfave/cli"
 )
 
+const defaultSignal = "SIGTERM"
+
 var killCommand = cli.Command{
 	Name:      "kill",
 	Usage:     "signal a container (default: SIGTERM)",
@@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ var killCommand = cli.Command{
 	Flags: []cli.Flag{
 		cli.StringFlag{
 			Name:  "signal, s",
-			Value: "SIGTERM",
+			Value: "",
 			Usage: "signal to send to the container",
 		},
 		cli.StringFlag{
@@ -47,7 +49,7 @@ var killCommand = cli.Command{
 		if id == "" {
 			return errors.New("container id must be provided")
 		}
-		signal, err := containerd.ParseSignal(context.String("signal"))
+		signal, err := containerd.ParseSignal(defaultSignal)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
@@ -74,6 +76,17 @@ var killCommand = cli.Command{
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		if context.String("signal") != "" {
+			signal, err = containerd.ParseSignal(context.String("signal"))
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+		} else {
+			signal, err = containerd.GetStopSignal(ctx, container, signal)
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+		}
 		task, err := container.Task(ctx, nil)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
diff --git a/container_opts.go b/container_opts.go
index 580715fee..ca4bf6748 100644
--- a/container_opts.go
+++ b/container_opts.go
@@ -76,6 +76,23 @@ func WithContainerLabels(labels map[string]string) NewContainerOpts {
 	}
 }
 
+// WithImageStopSignal sets a well-known containerd label (StopSignalLabel)
+// on the container for storing the stop signal specified in the OCI image
+// config
+func WithImageStopSignal(image Image, defaultSignal string) NewContainerOpts {
+	return func(ctx context.Context, _ *Client, c *containers.Container) error {
+		if c.Labels == nil {
+			c.Labels = make(map[string]string)
+		}
+		stopSignal, err := GetOCIStopSignal(ctx, image, defaultSignal)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		c.Labels[StopSignalLabel] = stopSignal
+		return nil
+	}
+}
+
 // WithSnapshotter sets the provided snapshotter for use by the container
 //
 // This option must appear before other snapshotter options to have an effect.
diff --git a/signals.go b/signals.go
index cdcb5e72d..32c34309d 100644
--- a/signals.go
+++ b/signals.go
@@ -17,12 +17,73 @@
 package containerd
 
 import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
+
+	"github.com/containerd/containerd/content"
+	"github.com/containerd/containerd/images"
+	"github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
 )
 
+// StopSignalLabel is a well-known containerd label for storing the stop
+// signal specified in the OCI image config
+const StopSignalLabel = "io.containerd.image.config.stop-signal"
+
+// GetStopSignal retrieves the container stop signal, specified by the
+// well-known containerd label (StopSignalLabel)
+func GetStopSignal(ctx context.Context, container Container, defaultSignal syscall.Signal) (syscall.Signal, error) {
+	labels, err := container.Labels(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return -1, err
+	}
+
+	if stopSignal, ok := labels[StopSignalLabel]; ok {
+		return ParseSignal(stopSignal)
+	}
+
+	return defaultSignal, nil
+}
+
+// GetOCIStopSignal retrieves the stop signal specified in the OCI image config
+func GetOCIStopSignal(ctx context.Context, image Image, defaultSignal string) (string, error) {
+	_, err := ParseSignal(defaultSignal)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	ic, err := image.Config(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+	var (
+		ociimage v1.Image
+		config   v1.ImageConfig
+	)
+	switch ic.MediaType {
+	case v1.MediaTypeImageConfig, images.MediaTypeDockerSchema2Config:
+		p, err := content.ReadBlob(ctx, image.ContentStore(), ic)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", err
+		}
+
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(p, &ociimage); err != nil {
+			return "", err
+		}
+		config = ociimage.Config
+	default:
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("unknown image config media type %s", ic.MediaType)
+	}
+
+	if config.StopSignal == "" {
+		return defaultSignal, nil
+	}
+
+	return config.StopSignal, nil
+}
+
 // ParseSignal parses a given string into a syscall.Signal
 // it checks that the signal exists in the platform-appropriate signalMap
 func ParseSignal(rawSignal string) (syscall.Signal, error) {