diff --git a/Lib/tarfile.py b/Lib/tarfile.py
index 226d4818ca7..af32b0f2cbd 100644
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py
@@ -2351,12 +2351,6 @@ def makelink(self, tarinfo, targetpath):
                     self._extract_member(self._find_link_target(tarinfo),
                                          targetpath)
         except symlink_exception:
-            if tarinfo.issym():
-                linkpath = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(tarinfo.name),
-                                        tarinfo.linkname)
-            else:
-                linkpath = tarinfo.linkname
-        else:
             try:
                 self._extract_member(self._find_link_target(tarinfo),
                                      targetpath)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 08f897f583b..7adf4f79773 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -97,6 +97,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #12926: Fix a bug in tarfile's link extraction.
+
 - Issue #13696: Fix the 302 Relative URL Redirection problem.
 
 - Issue #13636: Weak ciphers are now disabled by default in the ssl module