This paper deals with the effect of lightning impulse current on electrical characteristics of ZnO blocks used in distribution lightning arrester. The electrical characteristics of ZnO blocks are degraded by overtime impulse current, and the degraded ZnO block is brought to a thermal runaway and finally destroyed. It is therefore important to estimate the change of electrical characteristics of ZnO blocks. In this study, an impulse current generator which can produce 8/20$[mus]$, 3[㎄] and 4/10$[mus]$, 5[㎄] waveform is designed and fabricated to simulate the lightning impulse current of power systems. Total energy applied to the ZnO blocks at each time is 739[J] in 8/20$[mus]$, and 523[J] in 4/10$[mus]$, impulse current, respectively. From the experimental results, the 3rd harmonic of the leakage current increases continuously with the number of applied impulse current, but no significant changes in residual voltage and in reference voltage are observed until the ZnO block is destroyed. Also, it is confirmed that the main factor on degradation of ZnO blocks is rather the total energy applied to ZnO blocks than the peak value of the impulse current.