The imagePullPolicy in Kubernetes determines when the kubelet should attempt to pull the specified image. There are three options for this policy:

1. Always: Kubernetes always pulls the image from the repository, even if a cached version of the image exists on the node.
2. IfNotPresent: Kubernetes only pulls the image if it does not already exist on the node.
3. Never: Kubernetes never pulls the image, even if it does not exist on the node.

If the imagePullPolicy specification is not defined in a manifest file, Kubernetes will set the policy depending on the image's tag. If the image is tagged latest, then Kubernetes will assume the imagePullPolicy to be Always. An image with no tag is assumed to be latest, and so its policy is set to Always. Otherwise, the orchestrator will default the imagePullPolicy to IfNotPresent.