diff --git a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/JSON.java b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/JSON.java
index 8d0f4c47dd..cff284332a 100644
--- a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/JSON.java
+++ b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/JSON.java
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 import io.gsonfire.GsonFireBuilder;
 import io.gsonfire.TypeSelector;
 
+import io.kubernetes.client.gson.V1StatusPreProcessor;
+import io.kubernetes.client.openapi.models.V1Status;
 import okio.ByteString;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -34,7 +36,9 @@
 import java.time.OffsetDateTime;
 import java.time.ZoneId;
 import java.time.ZoneOffset;
-import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
+import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder;
+import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
+import java.time.temporal.ChronoField;
 import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -50,9 +54,19 @@
 public class JSON {
     private static Gson gson;
     private static boolean isLenientOnJson = false;
+    private static final DateTimeFormatter RFC3339MICRO_FORMATTER =
+            new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
+                    .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.OFFSET_SECONDS, 0)
+                    .append(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss"))
+                    .optionalStart()
+                    .appendFraction(ChronoField.NANO_OF_SECOND, 6, 6, true)
+                    .optionalEnd()
+                    .appendLiteral("Z")
+                    .toFormatter();
+
     private static DateTypeAdapter dateTypeAdapter = new DateTypeAdapter();
     private static SqlDateTypeAdapter sqlDateTypeAdapter = new SqlDateTypeAdapter();
-    private static OffsetDateTimeTypeAdapter offsetDateTimeTypeAdapter = new OffsetDateTimeTypeAdapter();
+    private static OffsetDateTimeTypeAdapter offsetDateTimeTypeAdapter = new OffsetDateTimeTypeAdapter(RFC3339MICRO_FORMATTER);
     private static LocalDateTypeAdapter localDateTypeAdapter = new LocalDateTypeAdapter();
     private static ByteArrayAdapter byteArrayAdapter = new ByteArrayAdapter();
 
@@ -65,7 +79,10 @@ public class JSON {
     public static GsonBuilder createGson() {
         GsonFireBuilder fireBuilder = new GsonFireBuilder()
         ;
-        GsonBuilder builder = fireBuilder.createGsonBuilder();
+        GsonBuilder builder =
+             fireBuilder
+                     .registerPreProcessor(V1Status.class, new V1StatusPreProcessor())
+                     .createGsonBuilder();
         return builder;
     }
 
@@ -784,11 +801,15 @@ public static class ByteArrayAdapter extends TypeAdapter<byte[]> {
 
         @Override
         public void write(JsonWriter out, byte[] value) throws IOException {
+            boolean oldHtmlSafe = out.isHtmlSafe();
+            out.setHtmlSafe(false);
+
             if (value == null) {
                 out.nullValue();
             } else {
                 out.value(ByteString.of(value).base64());
             }
+            out.setHtmlSafe(oldHtmlSafe);
         }
 
         @Override
@@ -844,6 +865,12 @@ public OffsetDateTime read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
                     if (date.endsWith("+0000")) {
                         date = date.substring(0, date.length()-5) + "Z";
                     }
+                    try {
+                        return OffsetDateTime.parse(date, formatter);
+                    } catch (DateTimeParseException e) {
+                        // backward-compatibility for ISO8601 timestamp format
+                        return OffsetDateTime.parse(date, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME);
+                    }
                     return OffsetDateTime.parse(date, formatter);
             }
         }
diff --git a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1ListMeta.java b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1ListMeta.java
index f161284a27..d3d563bbbf 100644
--- a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1ListMeta.java
+++ b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1ListMeta.java
@@ -258,7 +258,8 @@ public void write(JsonWriter out, V1ListMeta value) throws IOException {
            @Override
            public V1ListMeta read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
              JsonElement jsonElement = elementAdapter.read(in);
-             validateJsonElement(jsonElement);
+             // Disable validation so delete API can tolerate non-status return object (graceful deletion)
+             // validateJsonObject(jsonObj);
              return thisAdapter.fromJsonTree(jsonElement);
            }
 
diff --git a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Secret.java b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Secret.java
index 5684f47768..d0fa36751c 100644
--- a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Secret.java
+++ b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Secret.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 import com.google.gson.annotations.SerializedName;
 import com.google.gson.stream.JsonReader;
 import com.google.gson.stream.JsonWriter;
+import io.kubernetes.client.custom.MapUtils;
 import io.kubernetes.client.openapi.models.V1ObjectMeta;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -244,7 +245,7 @@ public boolean equals(Object o) {
     }
     V1Secret v1Secret = (V1Secret) o;
     return Objects.equals(this.apiVersion, v1Secret.apiVersion) &&
-        Objects.equals(this.data, v1Secret.data) &&
+        MapUtils.equals(this.data, v1Secret.data) &&
         Objects.equals(this.immutable, v1Secret.immutable) &&
         Objects.equals(this.kind, v1Secret.kind) &&
         Objects.equals(this.metadata, v1Secret.metadata) &&
diff --git a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Status.java b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Status.java
index b529e34551..c2268419a7 100644
--- a/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Status.java
+++ b/kubernetes/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/openapi/models/V1Status.java
@@ -378,7 +378,8 @@ public void write(JsonWriter out, V1Status value) throws IOException {
            @Override
            public V1Status read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
              JsonElement jsonElement = elementAdapter.read(in);
-             validateJsonElement(jsonElement);
+             // Disable validation so delete API can tolerate non-status return object (graceful deletion)
+             // validateJsonObject(jsonObj);
              return thisAdapter.fromJsonTree(jsonElement);
            }