This study aims to research and analyze the cause and countermeasures of the short-circuit test failures of the distribution transformer, which captures failure share at the highest level when carrying out its performance test. For this purpose, the research was done on the basis of 77 failure cases out of 998 tests in total performed by the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute(KERI) from 2004 to 2010. Based on the research, the paper also includes analysis of the causes of the short-circuit test failures in its early stage of transformer development and proposes its countermeasures accordingly.